Forty-six percent believe midterm vote will be accurately counted in poll
Fewer than half of likely national voters trust election workers to tally every ballot correctly this November. The survey indicates sharp partisan splits over how officials handle and secure ballots across the country.
The exclusive NewsNation-Decision Desk HQ poll came from research platform TrueDot.ai on Tuesday. It surveyed 974 likely national voters between Oct. 5 and Oct. 9.
The results showed distinct concerns about ballot security:
- 27 percent worry only about correctly counting mail-in ballots
- 14 percent believe Republicans will change the vote count
- 13 percent believe Democrats will alter tallies
Participants answered whether these concerns impacted their choice to vote. Forty-six percent skipped that query entirely.
Another 29 percent reported no impact on their plans. Twenty-two percent said they must cast ballots to overwhelm possible fraud. Roughly 3 percent said doubts made them less likely to participate.
Doubts persist across the political spectrum. Decision Desk HQ chief elections analyst Geoffrey Skelley explained the trend.
“Republicans have shown in recent years more doubt about election results, and obviously a lot of this has to do with the 2020 election and President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding it.”
Skelley noted that some Democrats also distrust current processes with Donald Trump in office. The poll carries an overall margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
Public opinion surveys sample small groups to gauge broad civic sentiment. Polling platforms use statistical modeling to balance sample sizes against national voter lists.
Host Chris Cuomo will present the findings on Decision Desk 2026 Have Your Say: A NewsNation Town Hall on Tuesday night. Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, commentator Stephen A. Smith and former strategist Steve Bannon will join the broadcast.
