Only 11 percent of Donald Trump supporters said they were “very confident” that votes across the country will be counted accurately in the upcoming election, according to a new Pew survey, while half of his backers say they are “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that those votes will be counted correctly.
The findings, released Friday, come after weeks of Trump comments in campaign speeches and in interviews that if he lost to Hillary Clinton it would be because the election was “rigged.”
Comparatively, 49 percent of Clinton supporters are “very confident” votes nationwide will be counted accurately, while only 20 percent said they were “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that those votes will be counted correctly.
Confidence levels rise among both candidates’ supporters when they were asked if they believe their vote will be counted correctly, but the gap between Clinton and Trump backers remains.
Ninety-two percent of Clinton supporters say they’re “very” or “somewhat” confident that their vote will be counted, compared to the 69 percent of Trump supporters who fell into those groups.
The survey also reflects a partisan shift in confidence in election integrity. In the 2004 and 2008 elections, supporters of the Republican nominee were more likely to say they were confident that their vote would be counted than the backers of the Democratic candidate.
