Newsletter: New Survey on Voter Beliefs about Election Integrity

January 2023 3 min read by The CEIR Team
newsletter

The beginning of 2023 has brought some good news in the work to preserve American democracy. Elected officials who defeated election deniers in 2022 took office in several states. President Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to several heroes who protected our democracy over the last several years, including Capitol police officers, Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, former Arizona Speaker Rusty Bowers, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt. I was honored to attend the ceremony at the White House as the guest of Speaker Bowers, and it was cathartic to commemorate the anniversary of the January 6th attack on the Capitol with this bipartisan group of heroes. And we learned that same week that Pennsylvania’s new governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was appointing Al Schmidt, a Republican, as his Secretary of State. Both Governor Shapiro and acting Secretary of State Schmidt took office yesterday.

Further, CEIR released the results of a new survey on voter beliefs about election integrity last week, indicating that voter confidence in elections is improving among Republicans. We saw much less election denial among Republicans regarding the 2022 elections than the 2020 elections. That’s the good news, but the polling indicates we’re not out of the woods. Republicans, and in particular Republicans who voted for Trump, still believe the lies about the 2020 election, and are significantly more likely to believe lies about 2022 and beyond. And many voters have misunderstandings about the protections already in place that ensure our elections are secure, meaning there is much more work to be done. As we commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week, we must all rededicate ourselves to protecting our democracy, and the professional election workers who work so hard to give us all a voice.

Sincerely, David Becker


newsletter

CEIR Releases New Survey on Election Integrity

More GOP Voters Trust U.S. Elections than a Year Ago, but Unfounded Beliefs in Fraud Persist

CEIR released a new poll last week, conducted by Echelon Insights, showing that GOP voters are somewhat more confident in U.S. elections now than they were a year ago. Despite this progress, the poll also shows that many Americans still believe unfounded conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.

Overall, the polling indicates a potential schism between GOP voters who supported former President Trump and those that did not, with the latter group’s confidence in elections tracking much closer to views of independents and Democrats. Further, it appears that there is a substantial bias created by outcomes, with GOP voters in states like Florida where Republicans won by large margins reporting much higher overall confidence in the process than GOP voters in states like Arizona and Nevada, where many statewide Republican candidates lost.

“This poll shows significant progress in voter trust in just one year,” David Becker, JD, Executive Director and Founder of CEIR. “While this is important progress in the fight to restore confidence in our nation’s elections, the continued belief in various conspiracy theories shows that these advances are fragile.”

“It is crucial to the health of American democracy that citizens believe that our nation’s voting systems are sound, and that their vote will be counted. We know that when voters are fed a steady diet of lies about our elections, this trust wanes, and as we saw on January 6th, 2021, the consequences can be dire. The next two years will be pivotal as we seek to counter the lies and restore voter confidence fully.”

See the full report


CEIR in the News

CBS News: Reflecting on what’s changed two years after the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6

CNN: Another ‘radical’ change to the Voting Rights Act could reach the Supreme Court

Miami Herald: Republicans’ trust in elections is up a little. But the next two years will be critical.

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