Despite concerns about the confusion a very close U.S. presidential election may create, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump supporters by and large believe the balloting process itself will proceed smoothly.
Those hopeful feelings are reflected in the findings of a new survey just released by the Pew Research Center showing that upwards of 90% of those who say they are supporting Democrat Harris believe the election process itself will go off well.
A much smaller number, but still a majority of supporters for Republican Trump, expressed similar confidence. Of this group 57% said agreed with the statement that they were “confident that elections will be run well.”
Concerns about the fairness of the presidential elections have always existed, with losing campaigns in close contests often claiming fraud: supporters of Republican Richard Nixon forever remained convinced that doctored balloting in some Chicago precincts carried the day for Democrat John Kennedy, who ended up winning Illinois by a 49.9% to 49.8% margin.
Fraud charges were particularly on display in the weeks following the 2000 election, seeing Republican George Bush carrying pivotal Florida over Democrat Al Gore by 537 votes out of nearly 6 million, and thus winning the presidential election with the help of a Supreme Court decision a month later that closed down recounting efforts in several of the Sunshine state’s counties.
But in the years since the 2000 battle, notes a recently published essay via the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, the process has become more secure due to the fact that “many state legislators finally recognized the vulnerabilities in our registration and voting process.”
Even more, continues the essay, many grassroot organizations, particularly in the last four years, have sprung into existence, “formed by concerned members of the public to train a much-needed watchful eye on their election officials, state laws, and administrative procedures.”
Confidence in an election’s fairness is also impacted by who won and who didn’t. In the classic movie Citizen Kane, the newspaper publisher and candidate Charles Foster Kane had two front page headlines already made up and ready to be released on election night, depending upon the results. One declared “Kane Elected.” The second? “Fraud at Polls!”
The Pew survey also showed a divergence between Harris and Trump supporters regarding the accurate counting of mail-in ballots, with 85% of the former group expressing confidence and only 38% of the latter feeling the same way.
Harris supporters, in contrast with Trump backers, also overwhelmingly downplayed the possible danger of the process being violated by hacking and other technological threats.
Voting in person, however, appeared to spark confidence among both Democrats and Republicans: 93% of the Harris supporters and 77% of Trump backers said they were at least somewhat confident that in-person votes will be counted accurately.
Adds an essay published by the Pew researchers: “There is broad confidence that local poll workers and state election officials will do a good job during the upcoming election.”
October 25, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
