Americans’ confidence that their votes will be accurately recorded this November has dropped dramatically in four years’ time, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
Forty-five percent of registered voters surveyed said “yes” when asked whether they thought the results of the election would be accurately counted, which is down 14 percentage points from when they were asked the same question in September 2016.
Voters’ mistrust of the election results’ tabulation has also risen sharply, up 11 percentage points from September 2016. Forty-five percent of voters in the NBC/Wall Street Journal’s August 2020 survey answered “no” when asked whether they thought the results of the election would be accurately counted.
The rise is mistrust is particularly attributable to Americans’ concerns about mail-in voting. A majority of registered voters surveyed this month, 51%, said they did not have confidence that votes cast by mail would be accurately recorded.
“[T]he survey’s results about voting and voting behaviors are characterized by deep divides by party and by presidential choice,” wrote NBC political editor Carrie Dann. “Supporters of Democratic candidate Joe Biden are significantly more likely than Trump backers to say they plan to vote by mail. … In contrast, two-thirds of Trump’s voters—66 percent — say they will vote in person on Election Day.”
Democrats’ concerns about the U.S. Postal Service affecting mail-in voting has spurred Democratic leaders to call for lawmakers to return to work in Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that the House should come back this week to push for legislation to halt potential policy changes in the U.S. Postal Service.
House and Senate lawmakers had planned to be largely absent from Washington until after the Labor Day holiday after negotiations faltered over coronavirus relief between Democrats and the Trump administration.
The NBC / WSJ poll surveyed 900 registered voters by telephone from August 9-12 with a 3.27% margin of error.
