For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Connie Luck
[email protected]
Columbus, Ohio – A new poll released by the Democracy Defense Project indicates that an overwhelming majority of Ohioans have confidence in their state’s elections but are concerned voting irregularities across the country could endanger the legitimate election and certification of the next President. Notably, Ohio voters show strong support for election integrity policies already in place in the state that aim to ensure elections are secure, fair and transparent.
The poll also finds:
- Nearly two-thirds of Ohioans are confident votes will be accurately cast and counted across the country, but more than one-third of Independents and more than half of Republicans are not confident;
- Ohioans are concerned about both parties engaging in improper activities, with Independents equally concerned about both Democrats and Republicans engaging in this behavior; and,
- Ohioans across the political spectrum are concerned about media suppressing some stories and exaggerating others, illegal immigrants and/or ineligible people casting votes, and artificial intelligence creating misinformation with realistic but fake video, audio or graphics of U.S. leaders and political candidates.
The Democracy Defense Project is a bipartisan organization working to defend the transparency, safety, security and validity of the elections system. The organization’s bipartisan board members, including former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) and former Ohio Congressman Zack Space (D), are spearheading initiatives in Ohio and other key battleground states to preserve election integrity, foster greater confidence in election results and improve voter participation.
KEY FINDINGS
- When it comes to the national election, nearly two-thirds of Ohio voters express confidence that votes across the country will be accurately cast and counted. Yet, there are concerns about the impact of national voting irregularities on the certification of the next President.
- Fully 64% of Ohioans express confidence that, across the country, votes will be accurately cast and counted in the November election. While Democrats (93%) and independent voters (60%) are more confident, Republican voters aren’t as convinced (41%). That said, Ohioans, especially Republicans, are concerned that voting irregularities could endanger the legitimate election and certification of the next President.
- Ohio voters have much more confidence in Ohio’s election system.
- Fully 91% of voters in the state are confident that votes will be accurately cast and counted in the 2024 elections in Ohio. Fully 83% of voters in the state are confident that the process of the voting and casting of ballots, and the counting of ballots and the tabulation of votes in Ohio is secure from fraud, hacking and other technological threats.
- There is strong support across party lines for election integrity policies currently in place in Ohio that aim to make the election process secure, fair and transparent.
| Policy | Support-Oppose |
| Require ballots and machines to be locked with tamper proof seals and stored behind locked doors that can only be access when unlocked together by both Republican and Democrat election officials | 92% – 4% |
| Require voting machines and tabulators go through a full logic and accuracy testing by a bi-partisan team before voting begins | 91% – 5% |
| Allow absentee voters to track the status of their ballot online just like they would with a package | 90% – 6% |
| Allow election staff to begin processing absentee ballots early on Election Day, so the public learns the winner on Election night without dragging counting on for days | 89% – 8% |
| Require voter identification to make sure only American citizens can vote and they only vote one time | 87% – 10% |
| Have paper ballot backups to check against machines as a way of double-checking results | 86% – 9% |
| Taking electronic voting machines offline so that they cannot be hacked online | 85% – 8% |
| Allow bi-partisan oversight of election results | 85% – 8% |
| After an election, require every county to conduct a post-election audit and make the audit open to the public | 85% – 11% |
METHODOLOGY
On behalf of the Democracy Defense Project, UpONE Insights recently conducted an Ohio statewide survey among 600 likely voters, September 18-21, 2024. The survey is a representative statewide sample pulled from the Ohio voter file and was completed via phone by live interviewers as well as text-to-web methodology. The margin of error of the poll is + 4.0%.
RESULTS
View poll results here.
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More information on the Democracy Defense Project can be found at DemocracyDefenseProject.org/OH.
Published: Oct 3, 2024
