Nearly half of Americans say they are concerned about fairness of 2020 election: survey

Less than 75 days before the November election, nearly half of Americans said in a new poll that they are concerned that the country cannot hold a fair election.
More than four in 10 respondents — 46 percent — said they are either not too confident or not at all confident that this year’s election will be conducted fairly and accurately, according to a survey from Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project in partnership with USA Today.
The poll also found that 36 percent of Americans are not too confident or not at all confident that all citizens who want to vote will be able to cast a ballot.
Researchers found that a significant number of respondents from both parties have concerns.
Forty-nine percent of Democrats are not too confident or not at all confident that the election will be conducted fairly and accurately, with 38 percent of Republicans agreeing.
The gap between the parties was bigger when it came to voter participation.
Forty-six percent of Democratic respondents said they are not too confident or not at all confident that all citizens who want to vote in the election will be able to, compared to 20 percent of Republicans who shared similar concerns.
Around half of younger and older voters also share concerns about the fairness of the upcoming election.
Fifty-six percent of voters under the age of 30 said they are not too confident or not at all confident that the election will be conducted fairly and accurately, with 42 percent of voters age 65 and up saying the same.
Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, said the political environment is “creating uncertainty between a lot of different groups the United States right now.”
The poll was conducted July 23-29 among 6,585 adults. It has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.
The timing of the survey shows that there was widespread voter concern about the fairness of the election even before the Postal Service warned election officials in 40 states last week that ballots may not arrive in time to be counted due to “inconsistencies” between its delivery service and state deadlines for receiving and counting mail-in ballots.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has came under scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for moving ahead with cost-cutting measures just months before the election. He reversed course on Tuesday, saying he would suspend those changes until after the election.
DeJoy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday.
Trump last week suggested that he was unwilling to make a deal with Democrats on a coronavirus relief bill that included Postal Service funding because holding off would prevent universal mail-in voting during the election.
Trump has for weeks made exaggerated or inaccurate claims about mail-in voting, saying that the election would be “rigged” and “fraudulent” if Americans use the practice. Experts have consistently said there is no meaningful evidence suggesting mail-in voting contributes to widespread voter fraud.
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