Voters are generally confident ballots were counted accurately in this year’s election, yet they express greater confidence in in-person ballots being counted accurately than they do in counts for absentee or mail-in ballots. Republican voters are more skeptical than Democratic voters that votes were counted accurately – particularly for absentee ballots.
Overall, most voters say they are confident that votes cast in person at polling places were counted as voters intended this year: 86% say they are at least somewhat confident that votes cast in person were counted accurately, including about half (49%) who are very confident.
Three-quarters of Republican voters and 97% of Democratic voters say they are at least somewhat confident in-person ballots were counted accurately. Democratic voters are about three times as likely as GOP voters to say they are very confident in these counts (74% vs. 26%).
Republican voters’ confidence in the counting of in-person ballots this year is higher than Trump voters’ confidence in these counts in 2020: Two years ago, 64% of Trump voters were at least somewhat confident that in-person votes were counted accurately.
Nearly all Democratic voters (97%) say they are confident that in-person votes were counted as voters intended, which is little different from the opinions of Biden voters in 2020 (98% were very or somewhat confident).
Voters today are somewhat more confident this year than they were two years ago that absentee or mail-in ballots were counted as voters intended, with Republican voters driving this increase in confidence.
Overall, two-thirds of voters say they are very (35%) or somewhat (31%) confident that absentee or mail-in ballots were counted accurately this year, compared with 59% who said this in 2020.
The share of Republican voters who say they are confident that mail-in ballots were counted as voters intended this year (41%) is about twice the share of Trump voters who said this following the 2020 election (19%).