Polls & Research

Americans Ponder Accuracy of Electoral Process

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Few adults in the United States are openly questioning the honesty of this year’s electoral process, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 76 per cent of respondents are very or somewhat confident that their vote will be counted accurately this year.

In September 2005, a commission headed by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and former state secretary James Baker recommended significant changes in the way Americans cast their ballots. The suggestions include requiring photo IDs for all voters, verifiable paper trails for electronic voting machines, and the impartial administration of elections. The report states: "Had the margin of victory for the (2004) presidential contest been narrower, the lengthy dispute that followed the 2000 election could have been repeated."

The butterfly ballot is said to have confused many voters in Florida’s Palm Beach County during the 2000 election. Although the Democratic ticket was listed second in the left page, they were in fact the third hole in the middle of the ballot. Florida’s 25 electoral votes decided the 2000 presidential election, after weeks of recounts and court injunctions concluded in a 537-vote victory for Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

Last month, Lawrence Norden—counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school—expressed disappointment with the current state of affairs, saying, "The sad fact is, we still have not systematically addressed the need for good ballot design standards. We’ve spent billions of dollars on overhauling election administration in this country, but we’re still seeing the same ballot design mistakes in almost every federal election."

Polling Data

How confident are you that the votes in your state will be accurately counted this year and that the appropriate candidates will be declared as the winner?

Very confident	36%
Somewhat confident	40%
Not very confident	18%
Not at all confident	5%
Not sure	2%

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted on May 31 and Jun. 1, 2008. Margin of error is 3.5 per cent.