Skepticism over vote counting appears to be spreading into the 2024 election, with most supporters of former President Trump in a new poll expressing doubt their votes will be accurately counted in this year’s election.
In a Suffolk University/USA Today poll published Thursday, 52 percent of voters said they lack confidence the ballots will be accurately tallied.
Nearly 4 in 5 Democrats expressed the opposite, with 81 percent of the party’s voters saying they are “very confident” the 2024 elections will be fair. About 14 percent of Republican voters said the same.
While the parties are divided over election attitudes, they share one sentiment — fear over the future of democracy in the U.S. The reasons behind this fear, however, are different.
The poll found about 83 percent of voters said they are worried about threats to democracy in the U.S. The greatest threats listed included former President Trump at 18 percent; government corruption and dysfunction at 10 percent; and immigration/open borders at 8 percent.
Pressed over which party is more responsible for threatening democracy, 40 percent of respondents said Democrats, while 40 percent said Republicans.
The survey was conducted from Dec. 26-29, just days ahead of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, in which scores of rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
The Jan. 6 attack came to symbolize the growing sentiment of election fraud, especially among some Republicans who felt the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
Trump has maintained he was the actual winner of the 2020 presidency, despite several election audits and more than 60 lawsuits that failed to prove the election was unfairly decided.
The former president now faces two criminal cases related to his alleged efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, one of which is centered on his role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Despite these charges, along with those in two unrelated criminal cases, Trump remains the front-runner in the GOP primary, with less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses kick off primary election season.
The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling index shows the former president with a 52.8-point lead over his GOP rivals, with 64.1 percent of the primary vote. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley trails far behind, with 11.3 percent, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis close behind her at 11 percent. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie each have support in the single digits.
The Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.