A majority of voters are concerned that the 2024 election will be marred by cheating, a new survey released by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute finds.
Sixty-two percent of “Likely Voters” are “concerned that cheating will affect the outcome of the 2024 election, including 37% who are Very Concerned,” the survey found. When broken down among presidential preference, 83 percent of voters who claimed they voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 are “at least somewhat concerned that cheating will affect the outcome of the 2024 election,” the survey found. Forty-two percent of voters who said they supported President Joe Biden in the last election cycle expressed the same concern.
Concerns about the security of mail-in ballots were also raised in the survey. Twenty-two percent of Republicans surveyed as well as 18 percent of both Democrats and participating “voters not affiliated with either major party, [said] they either received more than one official ballot in the mail or received a ballot for someone who does not live at their address in 2020.” The share of voters who said they received “multiple mail-in ballots in 2020 is higher (20%) among voters” in swing states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to the survey.
The survey was conducted amongst 2,466 likely voters nationally and “5,605 likely voters in the battleground states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The survey was conducted via phone and online between July 5 – 12.
“The fact that more than 60% of likely voters are concerned about election integrity should be a massive wake-up call to all those who refuse to admit that potential cheating in elections is a major problem,” Editorial Director of The Heartland Institute Chris Talgo said.
The survey also found that “a little more than one percent … of Likely Voters” in the six battleground states said “they’re not U.S. citizens” while 0.85 percent said they are “not sure” if they are a citizen.
Non-citizen voting in federal elections is illegal, though federal voter registration forms simply require an applicant to check a box affirming he is a citizen. No documentary proof of is currently required. Republicans recently introduced the SAVE Act, which would mandate applicants provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. The Save Act passed in the House earlier this month, although Democrats have largely opposed the measure.
In California, individuals with no government ID can still vote if they show a utility bill, credit card, or gym membership as proof of identity. None of the aforementioned documents verify citizenship.
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Swing states in particular saw a series of problems both during and following the 2020 election after Democrats exploited loopholes and, in some cases, usurped the authority of the legislature and unilaterally changed election laws.
This past May, the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) chided Fulton County for violating the law during the 2020 election after it found more than 3,000 ballots were scanned twice during the 2020 presidential recount. It is unclear whether the double-scanned ballots “were actually counted twice in the recount,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. SEB member Janice Johnston also said in May that 380,761 ballot images from the 2020 Election Day machine count were “not available.”
During the 2020 presidential election and 2022 midterms, thousands of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania that “did not comply with the date requirement” were still counted. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that unelected officials were wrong to accept the undated or incorrectly dated ballots during the presidential election.
Meanwhile, other issues present during the 2020 election are looking to reappear this November. Just last week a federal judge in Nevada dismissed a challenge from Republicans who argued that accepting mail-in ballots after Election Day is unconstitutional. The ruling permits a state law that extends the deadline for when counties can accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to four days after Election Day to remain in effect. The statute also permits ballots “whose date of postmark cannot be determined” to be accepted up to three days after Election Day so long as they arrive before 5:00 p.m.
