2 in 5 US voters scared of intimidation at polls: Reuters/Ipsos

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Reuters/Ipsos
26 Oct 2022 23:10
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According to the poll, about 67% of voters worry that extremists will commit acts of violence after the election, including about three in four registered Democrats and three in five registered Republicans.

Two in five US voters are concerned that individuals might threaten them or carry out acts of intimidation.

According to a poll jointly conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, two out of five US voters say they are concerned that individuals might threaten them or carry out acts of intimidation at polling stations during the US' upcoming November 8 midterm elections.

Although there haven't been any reports of voter intimidation so far, some fear that may be subjected to these acts, particularly in states where the divide between the two parties is rife following decades of deepening partisanship.

For instance in Arizona, a probe has been launched into a case of possible voter intimidation as people reported they were conspicuously filmed and followed after casting their votes.

🚨UPDATE: In the Arizona drop box voter intimidation case, the Arizona federal court will hold a hearing TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 1pm AZ time on the motion for a temporary restraining order.

Follow @DemocracyDocket for updates and details.https://t.co/oZ4dPF9kJj pic.twitter.com/aqyoKagnfB
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) October 25, 2022

Another complaint involved the monitors calling the voters "mules" in reference to a conspiracy theory popularized by Republicans that Trump's 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

The poll also found that two-thirds of registered voters are worried that extremists may carry out acts of violence if the outcome of the elections is not what they expected to be.

The poll results clearly reflect what some observers have described as a lack of trust in national democratic institutions.

Kathy Boockvar, a former top election official for Pennsylvania and member of the bipartisan Committee for Safe and Secure Election, said the US "is based on democracy. We should be excited about Election Day."

The rife between the two parties has become so deep that bipartisan legislations have become scarce, and the share of parents who admit they would be displeased if their child married someone from the other political party is growing.

According to the online poll results, which gathered responses from 4,413 US adults nationwide and had a credibility interval of between 2 and 5 percentage points, 43% of the poll's participants expressed worries over threats of violence or voter intimidation while voting in person, with 51% of total democrat participants expressing the aforementioned and 38% of total republican participants alike.

The poll results further reveal that one in 10 democrats and one in four republicans, which totals about a fifth of the sampled voters, said they were not trusting the accuracy of the vote count.

These results are surfacing amid the large wave of election denialism that is currently ravaging the country.

Election denialism, which involves casting doubt on election procedures, has been sharply on the rise since former US President Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 elections.

Election deniers generally believe that the 2020 elections were rigged, that Trump should have won a second term, and that voter fraud was widespread.

While Democrats accuse Republicans of sending poll watchers to intimidate minority voters aligned with the Democratic Party, Republicans accuse Democrats of violence as well, particularly in light of the riots that were sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

So far, 10 million have cast their votes to decide about the future of Democratic President Joe Biden's term.

The poll further highlighted that two-thirds of Republicans and one-third of Democrats think voter fraud is a widespread problem.

Two-thirds of Republicans think the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that Trump should have won the elections.

Although Trump's claims of fraud were rejected by courts, state reviews, and multiple members of his administration, they remained widely accepted among his supporters.

Some have developed online applications and hotlines to let users view a map of reported polling station problems and abnormalities in vote counts.