1/21/20
Weeks before the first votes of the 2020 presidential election, Americans report a high level of concern about how secure that election will be and worry about the perils of disinformation, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. Forty-one percent of those surveyed said they believed the U.S. is not very prepared or not prepared at all to keep November's election safe and secure.
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Reflecting the polarization of the Trump era, two-thirds of Democrats think the country isn't prepared, while 85% of Republicans said they think it is. "Like so many issues, Americans view election security from opposite poles of the partisan divide," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. President Trump, who has often disputed the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election, gets low marks from many voters on his handling of election security. Driven by Democrats and independents, 56% of those surveyed think Trump has not done very much or has done nothing at all to make sure there will be no future election interference — although 75% of Republicans think he has done enough. Trump faces an impeachment trial this month tied directly to his efforts to get Ukraine to launch an investigation into one of his potential 2020 rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden. And despite the scrutiny and criticism of his actions with respect to Ukraine, Trump also said in October that China should "start an investigation into the Bidens."
Intelligence and elections officials work hard to reassure voters about the integrity of the system, but there is concern about the effect of disinformation in the political discourse. False, misleading and agitating material were a big part of Russia's active measures in 2016.
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Americans retain concerns about this today; 59% of those surveyed reported that it is hard to tell the difference between what is factual and what is misleading information. Despite nearly four years' worth of attention to disinformation, 55% of Americans say it will be harder to identify deceptive information than it was in 2016. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said they believe they will read misleading information on social media and a similar proportion believe foreign countries will spread false information about candidates this year. The public does not trust big social network and tech companies to prevent their platforms from being misused to present election interference, the poll revealed.
In yet another sign that voters live in very different media bubbles, voter suppression was cited as the greatest threat for Democrats. Voter fraud topped the list for Republicans. Independents were most concerned with misleading information.
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"People are trying to redline the country to stop different ethnic groups from voting," said Larry Swoffard, an African American poll respondent from California. Local election officials get relatively high marks from voters, with 68% expressing confidence that officials will run a fair election in 2020. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they plan to vote in person on Election Day. Twenty-three percent say they will vote by mail or absentee ballot. Another 18% said they would cast their ballot at an early voting site.