58% of Americans are either “concerned” or “very concerned” about voter fraud in the upcoming November 5 presidential election, according to a new PR/PBS News/Marist poll. By contrast, 42% said they’re “not very concerned” or “not concerned at all.”
Two thirds (66%) of those polled also expressed concerns about foreign countries interfering in the election. Meanwhile, 52% said they are concerned or very concerned about non-citizens voting. 81% of Republicans, 53% of independents and 25% of Democrats expressed concerns about this eventuality.
Among respondents, 69% said they are confident or very confident in the United States Postal Service’s ability to deliver election-related materials on time. 30% said they were not very confident, or not confident, that this would take place. This includes 86% confidence among Democrats, 69% confidence among independents, and 56% confidence among Republicans.
Polling was conducted September 27-October 1, and involved the questioning of 1,514 adult registered voters.
The Marist polling comes amid signs of declining trust in electoral and other institutions, with an October 2023 study by the Public Affairs Council finding that just 37% of Americans think the 2024 election would be “honest and open” to rightful voters.
Last month, a SSRS/CNN poll found that between just 4 in 10 and half of likely voters in six key battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were “very confident” in the accuracy of their states’ voting process.
These same six states were contested by Donald Trump after the 2020 election amid allegations that the vote there was “rigged” or “stolen” using unsecured mail-in ballots or faulty voting machines – claims election and state officials, Democratic leaders and some Republican leaders vocally denied.
Broken down by party lines, while an average of 71% Harris supporters in the six states said they were “very confident” in the expected results, the same was true among just 15% of Trump supporters.
In January 2024, a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll found that 36% of American adults believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020.
Trump has regularly repeated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him on the campaign trail in 2024, prompting media “fact-checkers” to roll out story after story intended to debunk him.