By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
By a 2 percent margin, a majority of likely voters believe cheating is likely to affect this year’s elections, according to a new survey from Rasmussen.
The veteran polling firm released the results of a survey among 880 likely voters, taken Feb. 8 and 11-12, revealing that 52 percent think cheating “is likely to affect the outcome of the next presidential election.” This includes 27 percent who believe cheating is “very likely.”
Conversely, 37 percent believe cheating is not likely to affect the election outcome this fall, including 16 percent who think it is not at all likely.
Significantly, 54 percent of survey respondents do not believe government officials have done enough to prevent cheating. Thirty-two percent think enough has been done.
According to Rasmussen, “There is a sharp partisan divide on this question. While a majority (54%) of Democrats believe making it easier for everybody to vote is more important, 79% of Republicans say it is more important to make sure there is no cheating in elections. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 66% think it’s more important to prevent cheating in elections and 27% believe it’s more important to make it easier to vote.”
Most Republicans (64 percent) are more likely than Democrats (28 percent) or Independents (47 percent) to say mail-in voting makes it easier to cheat in elections. An even larger segment of Republicans (74 percent) think it is somewhat likely that cheating will affect the outcome of this year’s election, a view shared by 50 percent of Independents but only 32 percent of Democrats.
Following then party line vote farther, 78 percent of Republicans think government officials have not done enough to prevent cheating in elections, a belief shared by 32 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Independents.
More men (57%) than women voters (47%) consider it at least somewhat likely that the November election outcome will be affected by cheating, Rasmussen pollsters found. Men are also more likely than women voters to think mail-in voting makes it easier to cheat, according to Rasmussen Reports.
Fifty percent of whites, 52 percent of black voters and 57 percent of other minorities say cheating is at least somewhat likely to affect the outcome of the next presidential election, Rasmussen said. Black voters are less likely to think mail-in voting makes it easier to cheat.
