CIVITAS POLL: NC Voters Worried 2022 Elections Won’t Be Free and Fair

RALEIGH – The most contentious elections in modern American history — replete with massive mail in voting, anomalies, accounts and evidence of fraud, unconstitutional rule changes and culminating in the advent of January 6, 2021 — has naturally left a large portion of the electorate a little worried about the integrity of our elections.

That much is clear in recent polling from the Civitas Institute/John Locke Foundation. Less than half of respondents in this poll said they trust elections in 2022, while 40 percent straight up don’t trust them to be free and fair.

“[…] Unsurprisingly, Republicans communicated significantly more skepticism about 2022 election security than Democrats, with only 27% of registered Republicans stating their confidence in the election while 73% of Democrats expressed certainty. Unaffiliated voters were split on this question, with 45% saying they believe 2022 elections will be free and fair. Some 43% say they do not believe the elections will be free and fair.

The brewing concern is underscored in the ranking of issues deemed most important by likely voters. When asked to choose two issues that are most important to them, one in three —  31% — chose election integrity. Only jobs and the economy ranked higher, at 34%. Health care came in third at 30%, while education was chosen by 24%. Taxes and government spending ranked as most important by 21%.

“It should concern everyone that nearly one-in-three voters have election integrity as a top public policy issue,” said John Locke Foundation President Donald Bryson. “Pluralities of voters over 50, low-income voters, and non-college-educated voters named election integrity as a top issue. These numbers indicate that significant numbers of people question our electoral process’s foundations, and this issue will not go away anytime soon.” […]”

Is it any wonder that there is such an upwelling of distrust of elections and division over ‘official narratives’ along generally partisan lines, after the last six months? The last year?

A sizeable chunk of the North Carolina electorate has trust issues with elections — one of the most vital systems of our Republic — and Governor Roy Cooper spend his time telling adoring publications like Politico that all efforts to secure the vote and assure integrity in elections is nothing more than racist voter suppression.

With this divide as the current standard in such affairs, reconciling in order to address voters’ concerns isn’t possible, and so that distrust will do nothing but grow.

Examine the complete poll results, as well as questions on Voter ID and 2022 election preferences, here.