75% Of Georgia Voters Aren't ‘Very Confident’ 2022 Election Will Be Fair, Poll Suggests

Topline

Only a quarter of Georgia voters feel “very confident” the state will accurately count votes in the upcoming U.S. Senate and gubernatorial elections, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, setting the stage for potentially significant controversy given the contentious political climate, how tight the races are expected to be and how much is at stake.

Former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D) speak to voters at the Coan Recreation Center … [+] in Atlanta on November 3, 2020. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

The poll of 1,702 registered voters found only 25% are “very confident” the results will be counted fairly, while 37% are just “somewhat confident,” 21% are “not so confident” and 15% are “not confident at all.”

Concerns are spread across party lines, though Republicans appear more skeptical of the potential results than Democrats—31% of Democratic respondents said they’re very confident the count will be accurate, while only 15% of Republicans share that assessment.

Among Republicans, 47% said they’re not confident the results will be counted fairly, while 38% of Democratic respondents said the same.

The poll shows a tight race in the gubernatorial general election between likely Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams and either of her probable Republican challengers, with Abrams trailing incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp by two percentage points and holding a 48%-48% tie with former Sen. David Perdue, who’s been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

The Senate contest is expected to be a similar nail-biter, with the poll showing likely Republican nominee Herschel Walker leading Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock 49%-48%.

In the GOP gubernatorial primary, the poll shows Kemp holding a 7 point lead over Perdue, with Kemp holding a 70% favorability rating among Republicans despite Trump continually attacking him for not helping overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Surprising Fact

Trump has a strong track record of endorsing candidates that go on to win elections, but only 44% of likely Georgia GOP primary voters said Trump’s endorsement makes it “more likely” they’d vote for a candidate. Fifty percent said it makes no difference and 5% said they’d be less likely to vote for a candidate with Trump’s endorsement.

Key Background

Georgia has been a national focal point in the debate over election security and voting rights since the 2020 presidential election. Trump fixated on Georgia after the election, baselessly claiming widespread fraud kept him from carrying the state. Trump repeatedly called on Kemp to overturn the election results, and begged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” 11,000 votes after the election. Audio of the conversation between Raffensperger and Trump was leaked and spawned an ongoing criminal investigation into possible election interference on Trump’s part. A series of recounts affirmed President Joe Biden won the state by around 12,000 votes, making Trump the first GOP nominee to lose Georgia since 1992, but in March, Republican lawmakers passed a bill enacting a sweeping new set of voting restrictions, such as shortening the early voting period and making it more difficult to vote by mail. Georgia was again the center of the nation’s political attention in January 2021, when Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) defeated GOP incumbents in runoff elections to win both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats, flipping control of the chamber to Democrats.

Tangent

Abrams lost to Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election by about 55,000 votes but never conceded. She accused Kemp of voter suppression in the contest, a claim the governor has continually denied.

75% Of Georgia Voters Aren’t ‘Very Confident’ 2022 Election Will Be Fair, Poll Suggests

Topline

Key Facts

Surprising Fact

Key Background

Tangent

Further Reading