Poll finds voters split on whether voter suppression or fraud is the bigger problem

Americans are split, largely along party lines, on whether voter fraud or voter suppression is the bigger problem less than two weeks out from the midterm elections, according to a new American Barometer survey. 

The poll, which was conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company, found that 51 percent of respondents said voter suppression was a bigger issue, while 49 percent said the same about voter fraud. 

Seventy-two percent of Republicans say voting illegally is a larger problem, while 71 percent of Democrats said the same thing about voter suppression. 

Independent voters were also split on the question, with 49 percent saying voter suppression and 51 percent saying voter fraud. 

“What I see here is what I see in almost every single poll that we look at right now, the huge partisan divide on this,” Mallory Newall, research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”

“America has become so tribalized, and we’ve done research on this, that you’re not willing to hear the other side or to hear facts,” she added. 

President Trump has long claimed that voter fraud is a major issue, but numerous experts have demonstrated that it does not occur on a large scale.

Trump warned in a tweet last week that anyone found guilty of voter fraud in the midterm elections would face “maximum penalties.” 

The issue of voter suppression took center stage in Georgia’s gubernatorial race earlier this month after a report found that state officials removed an estimated 107,000 people from voter rolls because they decided not to vote in prior elections. 

Republican Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, is running against Democrat Stacy Abrams, who would be the first black woman in history to serve as a U.S. governor if elected. 

Abrams said that Kemp’s office has worked to suppress the votes of African-Americans in the state, while Kemp has said he is acting to prevent voter fraud. 

The American Barometer poll was conducted on Oct. 19 and 20 among 1,000 registered voters. The sampling margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. 

— Julia Manchester