Majority of Americans Don’t Completely Trust Integrity of Elections: Poll

Majority of Americans Don’t Completely Trust Integrity of Elections: Poll
Election staff members pack ballots after polls closed at the Moose Lodge on Election Day, in Kenosha, Wis., Nov. 3, 2020. Wong Maye-E/AP Photo
Patricia Tolson
Updated:
0:00
A new survey reveals that the majority of Americans do not trust the integrity of elections in the country.
According to a poll conducted among likely General Election voters between Nov. 16–20 by the Trafalgar Group for Convention of States, 56.8 percent of the respondents indicated they only somewhat trust (17 percent), somewhat distrust (17.9 percent), or strongly distrust (21.9 percent), that America’s elections are fair and accurate. Only 43.2 percent of American voters said they strongly trust that America’s elections are fair and accurate.
“It makes me fear for our republic,” Convention of States President Mark Meckler told The Epoch Times, adding that the peaceful transference of power is only made possible by faith in the sanctity of our elections.

According to his survey, the faith level in the sanctity of America’s elections is worse for states that can’t manage to post results on the night of elections.

The majority of Americans, 54.8 percent, said they are much less likely (33.9 percent), or somewhat less likely (20.9 percent) to trust election results that take days or weeks to tabulate. Only 45.2 percent of American voters said they are much more likely (17.1 percent), or somewhat more likely (28.1 percent) to trust election results that take days or weeks to tabulate.

Florida Model

In March, the Foundation for Government Accountability ranked Florida as a leader in election integrity for the second year in a row, “thanks to the strong leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature.”
Senate Bill 524 established the nation’s first Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Florida Department of State to investigate alleged occurrences of election law violations or irregularities and strengthened the previous year’s ban through Senate Bill 90, which prohibits private funding of elections with money DeSantis referred to as Zuckerbucks.”
Florida is among the seven states that allow election officials to begin counting mail-in ballots upon receipt. Florida requires that mail-in ballots be received by the county’s Supervisor of Elections office by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. Conversely, Nevada only requires mail-in ballots to be postmarked by Election Day and those ballots can be received up until the Saturday after Election Day.
States like Arizona, California, Maine, Alaska, and Colorado—that allow mail-in ballots to be received after election day—were still counting ballots one week after the Nov. 8 midterm elections concluded.

Florida state law also requires early voting ballots to be completely counted on the day before election day. The results of vote-by-mail ballots and those from early voting must also be posted within 30 minutes of the polls closing.

According to Meckler, Florida ran a flawless election.

“They have a good election security system,” Meckler said. “They produce their results early and that gives people more confidence.”

Considering that Florida’s election was so clean, Meckler also suggested its election integrity measures “was a factor in the red wave” that swept the Sunshine State.

“The main thing is that Florida provides a model for how the rest of the country should run its elections,” he said.

Patricia Tolson
Patricia Tolson
Reporter
Patricia Tolson is an award-winning Epoch Times reporter who covers human interest stories, election policies, education, school boards, and parental rights. Ms. Tolson has 20 years of experience in media and has worked for outlets including Yahoo!, U.S. News, and The Tampa Free Press. Send her your story ideas: [email protected]
twitter
Related Topics