Two years ago, shortly before the 2020 presidential election, Republicans’ trust in the nation’s election system had eroded considerably. Today, with the midterm elections approaching, widespread GOP distrust persists – and in some cases has deepened.
A majority of registered voters who support Republican candidates for Congress in their districts (56%) say they think the midterm elections in the U.S. will be administered very or somewhat well, with just 11% saying they will be run very well. That represents a modest increase from 2020, when 50% of Republican voters expected the presidential election to be run well (9% very well). But it is much lower than the 87% of GOP voters who said this in October 2018, shortly before the last midterm election.
Democratic voters, by contrast, have become more confident that elections will be administered well. An overwhelming share of voters who support Democratic House candidates (88%) say the midterm elections will be conducted very or somewhat well, up from 72% in 2020 and 79% four years ago. The partisan gap in these opinions, which was just 8 percentage points in 2018, has widened to 32 points in the current survey.
Among all voters, 70% say the elections will be administered very or somewhat well; that is higher than the share saying this shortly before the 2020 election and lower than in October 2018 (81%).