USA TODAY International Edition
43% say elections not fair and open
Poll cites shortage of poll workers, cyberthreats, antiquated machines
“Faith in how elections are run is critical to voter turnout.”
Christy McCormick Vice chair, U.S. Election Assistance Commission
WASHINGTON – Helen Butler carefully avoids mentioning Russian hacking or other threats to election systems when she tries to register voters in Georgia. She doesn’t want to scare off people who already doubt their votes will count.
“I’m concerned about anything that would dissuade voters from participating,” said Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda.
As midterms approach, Butler, election officials and others face the challenge of persuading wary voters to go to the polls.
Only about half of American voters believe the nation’s elections are “fair and open,” according to a recent University of Virginia Center for Politics/Ipsos poll. And only 15 percent of those voters “strongly agree” with that.
“It’s pretty scary when voters don’t have faith that the government is running this process correctly and fairly,” said Christy McCormick, vice chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. “Faith in how elections are run is critical to voter turnout, to the whole process of elections.”
Kyle Kondik, who analyzes elections at the Center for Politics, agreed, “I don’t think there’s been a lot of positivity about American politics and our election system in general.”
A report released last week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, cited several problems, including aging machines, a shortage of poll workers and cyberthreats.
The report called for more federal funds to improve election systems and protect against cyberattacks; for more post-election audits; and for election officials to adopt paper ballots that can be verified and are less vulnerable to faulty software and hardware.
Gale LuQuette, an attorney from Abbeville, Louisiana, has been worried about the vulnerability of election systems since officials started turning to electronic voting machines, including some without backup systems such as paper ballots.
These days, LuQuette also worries about cyberthreats.
“There’s too much evidence of the ability of third parties to hack the system, and unless those issues are addressed, then I don’t have faith in the system,” said LuQuette, 47, who still plans to vote in November “because it’s my duty to do so.”
McCormick, who has traveled the country talking about elections, said some voters have told her they aren’t bothering to vote because they believe elections are being hacked or can’t be trusted.
Russian hackers tried to breach election systems in at least 21 states in 2016, according to federal homeland security officials. State and local officials have ramped up efforts to address concerns ahead of the midterms, including hiring cybersecurity experts.
McCormick said election officials are more vigilant than ever to ensure fair and open elections.
The University of Virginia poll, which was conducted July 5-6, found what other surveys have shown – there’s a decline in institutional trust over the years, said Kondik.
According to the poll, 51 percent of respondents agreed elections are “fair and open,’’ while 43 percent disagreed. The online poll of 1,006 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the overall survey.
Kondick said there were some predictable partisan differences. Republicans tended to have more confidence in the system (68 percent) than Democrats (43 percent) and Independents (49 percent) did.
Wayne Clark, who has been voting for at least 40 years, hasn’t lost faith in the election system. It’s the media covering elections he doesn’t trust.
Clark called press coverage of President Donald Trump particularly “shameful.”
“He is the president, whether you like it or not,” he said. “He deserves some respect, and you all don’t give him an ounce of respect.”
Despite concerns about whether election systems are fair and open, Kondik said there may be a higher than normal turnout this midterm.
“It seems like there’s a lot of interest in politics right now,” he said.