Poll: Most Americans trust accuracy of election results

(NewsNation) — The vast majority of Americans have trust in the accuracy of the 2022 midterm election results but many, particularly Republicans, question the security of mail-in voting, according to the latest NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released Wednesday.

Nearly 80% of those surveyed say they have a “fair amount” or “great deal” of trust in the accuracy of the results of the upcoming midterm elections. Just 16% of respondents said they don’t have very much trust and 5% said they have “none at all.”

Republicans (24%) and independents (19%) were significantly more likely than Democrats (5%) to say they didn’t have very much trust in the accuracy of the results.

That split has likely been bolstered by a number of prominent GOP candidates who continue to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election. To date, no widespread voter fraud has been found.

Despite the lack of evidence, Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is currently favored to win, has repeatedly called into question President Joe Biden’s victory.

When asked how secure they believed mail-in voting to be, the majority of those polled, nearly 70%, said “somewhat secure” or “very secure.” By comparison, 16% said mail-in voting is “not very secure” and 15% said it’s “not secure at all.”

About 45% of GOP respondents said they believe mail-in voting is “not very secure” or “not secure at all,” compared to 55% who said the method was “somewhat” or “very” secure.

Both Democrats and Republicans greatly overestimated the number of fradulent mail-in ballots submitted during a typical election cycle, the survey found.

Of the 1,012 people polled, about 25% thought the percent of fradulent mail-in ballots submitted in U.S. elections was higher than 10%.

An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss.

Americans across the country are paying particularly close attention to the Senate races in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Florida, the poll found.

Early numbers suggest residents in those states are eager to participate in this year’s midterms.

As of Tuesday, nearly 920,000 mail-in and absentee ballots had been returned in Pennsylvania, according to state election data.

In Florida, more than 3 million people have already cast ballots, about 20% of the state’s registered voters.

Elsewhere, concerns about voter suppression following a new Georgia law appear to be somewhat overblown. More than 1.8 million Georgians have cast ballots so far, which is more than 30% higher than at this point in 2018.