More than one in four potential voters say they would violate election laws in the 2024 election “if given the chance,” according to a new study from the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports. ing. The results raise serious questions not only about America’s political polarization but also about whether the country’s election laws are secure enough to prevent illegal voting in future elections. There is.
The Heartland – Rasmussen poll asked 1,467 potential voters whether they planned to vote for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or any other candidate. Next, respondents were asked a series of questions about illegal voting behavior. Many of the questions were specifically written to gauge voters’ willingness to undermine candidates they saw as their main opponents.
If voters are willing to cheat, lawmakers must enact policies to stop them from doing so.
For example, one question asked, “If you had the chance, would you vote in two different states to stop it?” [Joe Biden / Donald Trump] Will he not be re-elected as president? ”
Another asked, “If you had the chance, would you help prevent your friends and family from voting by throwing away or destroying their mail-in ballots without their knowledge?” [Joe Biden / Donald Trump] Will he not be re-elected as president? ”
Questions may include filling out and signing a friend or family member’s ballot, giving other voters false information about the location and time of the election, or secretly altering another voter’s mail-in ballot. Voters were also asked whether they would offer to “pay or reward” them. Another voter’ could influence that decision. All of these actions violate federal and state election laws.
The findings are nothing short of surprising. His 28% of voters said he would be willing to participate in at least one form of illegal voting. If this is an accurate reflection of the electorate as a whole, based on 2020 he equates to over 44 million voters. Voter turnout data.
Perhaps most surprising is that there was little difference between voters’ party affiliation and their willingness to cheat. Thirty-two percent of Democratic respondents said they would be willing to cheat, compared to 28% of Republicans and 24% of “other” voters.
Those who voted for Trump (29%) were slightly more likely to say it would violate election rules than those who voted for Biden (27%), revealing a willingness on both sides to cheat. Shown.
One demographic characteristic that stood out was the age of the survey respondents. More than half of voters aged 18 to 39 said they were willing to break election rules, compared to just 20% of voters aged 40 to 64 and 15% of voters 65 and older.
The Hartland-Rasmussen study further reveals how deeply polarized the US has become, but it also raises serious concerns about the security of US elections.
Most of the survey questions asked about behaviors related to voting by mail since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, which has become much more common.
according to study According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 states allow “no-excuse” mail-in voting. In other words, voters do not need to have a special reason to vote by mail, such as a physical disability.
Eight other states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington) conduct elections primarily by mail.
More importantly, the most important battleground states in 2024, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all allow no-excuse mail voting or have mail-in voting systems in place. That’s it.
Some states say they are preventing absentee ballot fraud by requiring signature verification. But Hartland Rasmussen’s research shows that voters are willing to cheat in ways that signature verification would not.
For example, the study found that “your spouse or other trusted family member has given you permission to fill out and sign a mail-in ballot and use that ballot to vote for anyone of your choice.” If so, would you do that?” 18% of respondents answered “yes”.
Under such a scenario, a person might be able to duplicate their spouse’s signature sufficiently that it would not be found out by election officials. But even if officials flag a signature as suspicious, states often ask voters questions before discarding the ballot. Unless the voter admits that his or her spouse violated election laws, there is no way for authorities to know that the ballot was filled out illegally.
There are two solutions to these concerns. First, states could require able-bodied residents to vote in person rather than by mail.
Second, states could require mail-in voters to have their signatures verified by a notary public. Notaries are easily available at banks and other institutions, often for free. Many government agencies have one or more notaries.
Currently, only 3 states — Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma — require a notary public for absentee voting.
Free and fair elections are the foundation of a democratic republic. As the recent Hartland-Rasmussen study shows, if voters are willing to cheat, lawmakers must enact policies to stop them. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.
