Georgia voters’ confidence that their ballots were counted accurately jumped after this year’s election — especially among Republicans — since Donald Trump’s victory, according to a new University of Georgia survey.
About 92% of all voters surveyed said they were either very confident or somewhat confident their ballots were counted as they intended, a sharp increase from 78% who expressed confidence after Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
While Republicans’ faith in elections increased, Democrats’ trust in the count fell this year.
Nearly 98% of respondents who identified themselves as Republicans said they believed their ballots were counted as intended, up from 60% when the same question was asked after the 2020 race.
Among Democrats, 84% said they believe their ballots were counted correctly, down from 96% after the 2020 election.
This year’s election outcome was less contentious than the last one four years ago, when Trump falsely claimed there was massive fraud. Trump won by 2 percentage points in Georgia this year compared with Biden’s 0.2-percentage-point victory in 2020.
“Georgia elections are on the right track. These results show what we’ve been saying all along: Georgia elections are secure and accessible,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.
The survey was conducted Nov. 11-20 by UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. It included 1,541 registered Georgia voters who self-reported as having voted in this year’s general election. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.
The survey was funded by a grant from the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at the University of California, San Diego.
Although voters expressed confidence after the election, they were doubtful beforehand.
Nearly 3 out of 10 likely voters lacked confidence the election would be conducted fairly, according to a UGA poll in October commissioned by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The latest UGA survey also showed that broad majorities of voters found it easier to vote this year.
About 21% of Georgia voters said it was easier to cast a ballot than in the last election they voted in, and 3% said it was harder to vote. About 76% said there was no difference.
Few voters reported they had to wait long to vote. Almost 81% of voters said their wait was less than 10 minutes. Just 2% of voters said they waited more than 31 minutes, and less than 1% waited over an hour.
About the Author
