Georgia Democrats show growing confidence in fairness of elections
Despite the seizure of troves of ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County by the FBI and comments from President Donald Trump about “nationalizing” elections, Democratic voters enter the midterms slightly more confident in the process than they were just six months ago.
According to an exclusive poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of likely primary voters, one in four Democratic voters are not confident the primary elections will be conducted fairly. That’s an improvement over the AJC’s polling in the fall when a third of Democratic voters lacked confidence in the system.
The AJC has been tracking voter confidence in polls for several years. The findings in the AJC’s fall survey were notable because for years it had been Republicans who questioned the integrity of Georgia’s elections. While GOP confidence rose in that poll, Democrats declined.
The new polling would seem to reflect Democrats’ hopes for the midterms following surprise gains in special elections last year for the state’s Public Service Commission. But some voters still expressed their concerns that Trump’s efforts to reshape American elections through executive order and the prospect of federal immigration agents appearing at polling locations could derail an orderly election.
“My main concern would be ICE intimidation,” said Daniel Catanese, a 24-year-old from Cobb County. “I don’t think outright fraud is likely.”
Still, more than two-thirds — 70% — of likely Democratic primary voters said they are very or somewhat confident that the primary election will be conducted fairly and accurately. Even more likely Republican primary voters — 77% — are very or somewhat confident in the election heading into Tuesday’s election. About 21% of GOP voters lacked confidence in the election, an increase from 19% in the fall, the poll showed. But that jump is within the poll’s margin or error.
After Joe Biden’s narrow victory over Trump and Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud in 2020, years of surveys in Georgia and across the country showed voter confidence suffered.
With early voting underway for the May primaries and the general election approaching, the Trump administration’s probe into the president’s 2020 grievances has escalated, risking further confidence erosion and sowing doubts about the midterms among voters — especially Democrats.
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The 2020 election’s outcome was upheld by multiple vote counts, including a hand-count audit of every ballot cast. Investigations debunked claims of double-counting by poll workers, ballot stuffing, counterfeit ballots and dead voters. Still, Trump has never conceded the 2020 election.
The survey was conducted in late April, so it does not capture how voter sentiment might have been impacted by more recent developments.
Last week, it was revealed the Justice Department is demanding the Fulton County Board of Elections turn over personal information from all November 2020 election workers. Fulton is seeking to block the grand jury subpoena. It marked the latest escalation in the DOJ’s investigation into Fulton’s 2020 election, an apparent effort to advance the president’s yearslong campaign to recast his 2020 defeat as stolen.
Tim Langan, 57, of Atlanta, who said he’s voting in the Republican primary this year, called the administration’s focus on Fulton’s 2020 election “ridiculous,” and he said he is confident in this year’s midterms and the state’s touchscreen voting machines.
“There’s going to be minor anomalies in a system where you’ve got millions of people voting, but I don’t think we have widespread problems with voting machines or the way they’re being counted,” he said.
The University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs conducted the AJC’s polls. One included 1,000 likely Democratic primary voters and another surveyed 1,000 likely Republican primary voters. Each poll’s margin of error was 3.1%.
About the Author
Caleb Groves is a general assignment reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's politics team and a Kennesaw State University graduate.
