Americans' trust in government and elections differs by party affiliation, new report finds
The ABA Standing Committee on Election Law has joined up with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors to help mobilize lawyers to assist as poll workers in the upcoming election. (Photo by Stephanie Francis Ward)
With the November 2024 presidential election less than two months away, a new report by the World Justice Project is ringing alarm bells about American skepticism in the election process, political polarization and an overall lack of faith in government accountability.
Released Tuesday and titled U.S. Rule of Law Trends and the 2024 Election, the report found that only one-third of Republicans and two-thirds of Democrats in the United States think that election officials are trustworthy.
Additionally, the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republican surveyed agreed that the rule of law is essential or important to America’s future. But the report also found that perceptions regarding the independence and fairness of the justice system have eroded since 2018.
The ABA Standing Committee on Election Law has joined up with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors to help mobilize lawyers to assist as poll workers in the upcoming election. The initiative, Poll Worker, Esq., encourages lawyers, law students and other legal professionals to volunteer to help elections run smoothly, efficiently and effectively.
The World Justice Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, works to raise awareness about the rule of law worldwide. Its report draws on a decade of national surveys.
The latest poll was administered in June to 1,046 adults by YouGov, an international online research data and analytics technology group.
Additionally, the report found that 46% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats said they would not consider the 2024 election results to be legitimate if the other party’s presidential candidate won. Also, 14% of Republicans and about 11% of Democrats surveyed said they would take action to overturn the election results based upon who was declared the winner. About 13% of Americans polled agreed that people do not have to obey the laws of a government for which they didn’t vote.
“Today, trust in many U.S. institutions, government accountability and overall rule of law is considerably lower than it was ahead of the 2020 election,” wrote Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the World Justice Project, in a statement.
According to the report, people who described themselves as Democrats had more faith than those who described themselves as Republicans in the electoral process, including fraud prevention and the accuracy of vote counting.
Only 29% of Republicans compared to 56% of Democrats said the electoral process was free from corruption. However, 67% of Republicans said they would trust the U.S. Supreme Court to fairly determine the winner of a contested election, compared to 47% of Democrats. Democrats and Republicans differed significantly on whether the electoral process prevented fraud, with 78% of Democrats compared to 40% of Republicans.
Nevertheless, 88% of Americans polled said they planned to vote in the upcoming election.
