California Republicans show little confidence in state election integrity versus Democrats: poll
More than half of California Republicans expressed a lack of confidence in local officials running a secure and fair election.
Registered voters in the state of California expressed confidence in local election officials by a 2-to-1 margin, but that level of trust drops when the results are broken down by political party.
The Berkeley IGS poll found that 79% of Democratic voters expressed confidence in local officials running a secure and fair election, but only 42% of Republicans expressed confidence, the Los Angeles Times reported. Independent voters had more trust than Republicans, with 62% expressing confidence.
The poll found that 65% of all registered voters expressed confidence, and 31 % expressed a lack of confidence.
The conductor of the poll attributed the partisan divide to President Donald Trump's vocal criticism of U.S. election integrity and accusations of voter fraud.
“It’s clearly a partisan issue, and it is being promoted by the president and others who are his followers. Strong conservatives and the Republicans are the least confident, and a lot of them are saying [they are] not at all confident. That’s a pretty extreme statement," Mark DiCamillo, the director of Berkeley IGS polls, told the Times.