There is an undeniable problem with Americans’ faith in elections. “Just one-out-of-four voters (26%) believe that the right person was declared the winner in each of the last two presidential elections,” according to Rasmussen’s survey from March. “Most voters (56%) believe at least one of the last two presidents was illegitimately put into office. That includes 26% who believe Hillary Clinton was the legitimate winner in 2016 and 31% who believe Donald Trump was the legitimate winner in 2020.”
As faith in elections is clearly eroding, Americans want tighter, not looser voting restrictions in the wake of the 2020 election debacle.
A whopping 70 percent of all voters “want all mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day,” according to one poll. “Requiring mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day is favored by 83% of Republicans, 63% of Democrats, and 55% of Independent voters. In fact, that requirement is favored by a majority of every measured demographic group.”
Ballot harvesting, another controversial practice, is opposed by 57 percent of voters, who believe it should be outlawed. While opposition to ballot harvesting is strong, voters are more mixed when it comes to ballots cast in the wrong precinct, with a plurality of voters saying votes cast in the wrong precinct should not be counted, and 40 percent saying those votes should be counted.
As for voter ID, it isn’t even close. More than three-quarters of voters, 76 percent, believe that “all voters should be required to show a photo ID before voting.” Democrats have long opposed photo IDs, claiming that the policy discriminates against minorities. But the popularity of photo IDs has made some Democrats flip-flop on this issue.
Democrats think the answer to fixing America’s elections is their ridiculously partisan H.R. 1. However, the reforms Americans want to fix elections look a lot more like proposals supported by Republicans.
Go figure.
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