Donald Trump’s election interference has devastated Americans’ confidence that the midterms will be conducted fairly, according to a new poll.
The 80-year-old president has tried to sow distrust in November’s midterms and exert federal control by issuing an executive order restricting mail-in ballots and creating a nationwide absentee voter database.
The administration has also seized mail-in ballots from previous elections, tried to obtain state voter rolls, and demanded that red states draw new congressional maps mid-Census to give Republicans an advantage.
The result has been a flurry of legal challenges and outstanding questions—and widespread voter concern about election integrity heading into the midterms.
Just 45 percent of respondents in a new YouGov survey believe the midterms will be conducted fairly, with 55 percent responding “no” or “not sure.”
The numbers were consistent across political parties, with 20 percent of both Republicans and Democrats saying they didn’t think the election would be conducted fairly. Another 31 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans said they weren’t sure.
Among independents, 24 percent said they didn’t think the election would be conducted fairly, and 39 percent said they weren’t sure.
In a statement to Axios, the White House blamed litigation brought by “radical Democrats” for any election-related confusion, and claimed that Americans would have “full confidence in their elections” if Democrats agreed to vote for the SAVE America Act.
A federal court has blocked Trump’s executive order from taking effect, saying it likely violates the Constitution, which gives states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, not the executive branch.
The SAVE America Act, which would impose onerous new restrictions on people registering to vote, stalled in the Senate over concerns that it would disenfranchise millions of voters who lacked access to the necessary documentation.
Trump has claimed that his proposed voting restrictions are necessary because of widespread voter fraud, despite court records and independent audits repeatedly finding that electoral fraud is vanishingly rare.
For years, Trump has spread baseless claims that voting by mail in particular is a form of “cheating,” while repeatedly casting his own absentee ballots.
That war on mail-in voting has apparently resonated with Republicans, though, with just 33 percent saying that voting by mail should be allowed, according to the YouGov poll.
A whopping 91 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Independents said it should be allowed.
The YouGov survey also showed that far more Democrats and Independents voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election compared to Republicans, with 33 percent of Democrats casting mail-in or absentee ballots, 23 percent of Independents, and 18 percent of Republicans.
The survey didn’t specify whether those ballots were mailed in, or left at election drop boxes and other official voting sites.
For the midterms, voters seem wary of sending their ballots back by mail.
Just 18 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of Independents, and 14 percent of Republicans said they planned to use the mail or post office, with another 14 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of Independents, and 5 percent of Republicans planning to drop off their ballots at election drop boxes and voting sites.
Most Republicans, or 55 percent, planned to vote in person on Election Day, compared to 36 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Independents.
