A new YouGov survey explores how Americans are feeling about election integrity, voter fraud, and voter suppression ahead of the November election. Democrats and Republicans differ in how they view the prevalence of voter fraud and voter suppression, but majorities in each party support certain election policies including improving accessibility for disabled voters and requiring photo identification to vote.
29% of Americans — including 8% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans — think people committing voter fraud is a bigger issue than people who are eligible to vote not being able to do so (32%). 59% of Democrats and 7% of Republicans think eligible voters being prevented from voting is the more widespread problem. Republicans are more likely now than in November 2022 to believe people committing voter fraud is the more widespread problem, up from 48%.
Americans also are roughly evenly split on whether preventing voter fraud or ensuring all eligible voters can vote is more important. 24% think it’s more important to make sure no one is able to commit voter fraud; 25% think it’s more important to make sure that no one who is eligible to vote is prevented from doing so. About half of Americans (47%) think these are equally important.
Democrats (43%) are more likely than Independents (24%) and Republicans (8%) to say it’s more important to make sure no one who is eligible to vote is prevented from doing so. Republicans (39%) are more likely than Independents (19%) and Democrats (15%) to say it’s more important to make sure no one is able to commit voter fraud.
Among 15 election policy proposals included in the survey, the one that garners the most support among Americans is requiring election officials to regularly remove people who have died from voter registration rolls based on death records (85% strongly or somewhat support). Other ideas with widespread support include raising standards for voting accessibility for people with disabilities (77%) and requiring photo identification in order to vote (75%). At least 60% of both Democrats and Republicans support each of the three proposals above.
Among the biggest differences between Democrats and Republicans on the 15 election policy proposals: 86% of Democrats and 43% of Republicans support requiring states to offer online voting registration. 83% of Democrats and 38% of Republicans support allowing any eligible voter to vote by absentee ballot, even if they could vote in-person. 78% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans support requiring states to offer same-day voting registration and online registration.
State election policies differ, including on the latest point at which a mail ballot can be counted. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 32 states require absentee/mail ballots returned by mail to be received on or before Election Day. 18 states, plus Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., will accept and count a mailed ballot if it is received after Election Day but postmarked on or before — in some cases, only before — Election Day.
The largest share of Americans (36%) think the latest point at which a mail ballot should have to arrive at the elections office in order to be counted is Election Day. 51% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats hold this view. One-third (34%) say a ballot should be counted if it arrives after Election Day but with a postmark indicating it was sent on or before Election Day; 22% think it should have to arrive before Election Day in order to be counted.
The number of Democrats who think a mail ballot should be counted if it arrives after Election Day but with a postmark indicating it was sent on or before Election Day has increased to 53% from 45% in 2022. The percentage of Republicans who agree with that has dropped to 18% from 26%.
35 states have laws which explicitly allow for returning a completed mail ballot on behalf of another voter, according to the NCSL. 36% of Americans think this should be allowed. Slightly more (40%) think this should not be allowed.
Among Democrats, 55% think someone other than the voter should be allowed to return their mail ballot in-person to the local election office or at a ballot dropbox and 24% say this should not be allowed.
Among Republicans, 25% think this should be allowed and 62% say it should not be allowed. The share of Republicans who think this practice should not be allowed has risen from 53% in November 2022.
44% of Americans — including 57% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats — believe people who sign up to be election observers are more focused on protecting election integrity than on trying to intimidate voters (18%). 11% say neither and 27% are unsure.
26% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans think people who sign up for this task are more focused on trying to intimidate voters.
In 2022, slightly more (33%) Democrats thought election observers were more focused on trying to intimidate voters. At the time, 37% of Democrats thought observers were more focused on protecting election integrity.
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Related:
- How Americans feel about voting fraud and election policy
- Voting laws: Americans support requiring proof of citizenship to vote
- Republicans say it should be harder to vote in America, while Democrats want to make it easier
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on September 5 - 8, 2024 among 1,127 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Joe Raedle / Staff)
