Voters worry about election accuracy ahead of tight North Carolina primary, polls find
Many voters in North Carolina question the security and accuracy of the state’s elections ahead of the Democratic primary on Super Tuesday.
The new poll from Meredith College released Friday found Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg all within the poll’s margin of error at about 17% each.
“Two other candidates — Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg — are within striking distance,” with Warren, a U.S. senator representing Massachusetts, at 10.8% and Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, at 10%, the poll found.
The results of the new poll line up with another poll of likely voters from Public Policy Polling released earlier this week that found the three Democratic front-runners almost tied ahead of the March 3 election, when voters from 14 states will go to the polls to pick a Democratic nominee for president.
“Election security is on the minds of North Carolinians as they approach the primary election next week and the general election in November,” according to the Meredith poll.
“Over one-quarter of respondents indicated that they had no confidence or very little confidence in the voting processes used in the state, while over 41 percent indicated that they were only somewhat confident that votes would be recorded accurately,” the Meredith poll found.
But put another way, nearly 70 percent of state residents are “very” or “somewhat” confident that the results will be accurate.
“The concern about the voting processes in the state cut across all demographic groups with Democrats and Republicans alike indicating lower-than-expected levels of confidence. Level of education, gender, and other characteristics do not seem to make a difference in people’s perceptions,” according to the poll.
State Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon said in a statement to McClatchy News that “there is an incredible amount of misinformation out there about elections, primarily on social media. We encourage all voters in North Carolina to get information about elections and election security from reliable sources, particularly from state and county elections officials.”
He said every ballot cast in North Carolina is a paper ballot. Voters in most counties will fill out the ballot by hand, and voters in seven counties use machines that fill out the paper ballots.
“We also encourage voters to review their ballot before casting it, report any issues to poll workers,” Gannon said.
“Every machine used in elections – including touch-screen voting machines that print out paper records and the precinct scanners that count ballots – are tested before every election. Voting machines are never connected to the internet, limiting the possibility of cyber interference,” he said.
A separate poll by Elon University shows that 48% of voters said they were either “not at all” or “only a little” confident that “the election process overall will be fair.”
When asked if they agree with the statement “votes will be counted properly,” 43% said “not at all” or “only a little,” the Elon poll found.
“These concerns about the legitimacy of the voting processes in the state are related to recent events such as the 2018 absentee ballot fraud case in the 9th Congressional District and the more recent problems with vote gathering and reporting in the Iowa Democratic caucuses,” according to the Meredith poll.
“There is little doubt that the constant news stories about voting problems in North Carolina and Iowa contribute to the concerns that voters have about election security,” said Meredith Poll Director David McLennan.
“The real question for the primary election, as well as the general election, is whether these concerns will translate into fewer people voting,” he said in a statement. “There appears to be high voter enthusiasm in the state, but future stories about voting problems may dampen the enthusiasm.”
Gannon said “every polling place in North Carolina is staffed with bipartisan, trained officials from the local community who take an oath to uphold elections laws and work together to ensure election security. Observers from the political parties also are stationed at polling places.”
“County and state elections officials in North Carolina, who are on the front lines and work every day to ensure elections are fair and accurate, are confident that the results in the 2020 primary will accurately reflect the voters’ wishes,” he said.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Voters worry about election accuracy ahead of tight North Carolina primary, polls find."
