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November 23, 2020

Voter Suppression vs Voter Fraud

There have long been fierce debates on how many votes were suppressed and how many fraudulent votes were cast. Some believe that voter suppression is rampant around the US and that millions of people do not vote because of the barriers presented to them. They believe that we should make voting easier to reduce voter suppression. Others believe that voter fraud is prevalent around the US and that millions of illegal votes are cast and counted. They believe that we should create more voter regulations to reduce voter fraud.

ActiVote conducted a survey to determine what our users thought about voter suppression vs voter fraud. We asked whether it was more important to stop fraudulent votes from being cast, or more important to enable everyone who could legally cast a vote to actually cast one. We provided five options to choose from, which can be summarized as follows:

  • Fraud prevention is much more important
  • Fraud prevention is somewhat more important
  • Fraud prevention and allowing voting equally important
  • Loss of legal votes is somewhat more important
  • Loss of legal votes is much more important
The headline result
fraud prevention much more important
14%
fraud prevention somewhat more important
5%
equally important
51%
loss of legal votes somewhat more important
13%
loss of legal votes much more important
17%
 See the details below →

Just over half of all our users (51%) believe that avoiding fraud and enabling voting are equally important on a vote-by-vote basis. Another 30% believe that enabling voting is more important, while 20% believe that avoiding fraud is more important.

The crosstabs
Men
15%
52%
11%
16%
Women
13%
50%
17%
19%
fraud prevention much more importantfraud prevention somewhat more importantequally importantloss of legal votes somewhat more importantloss of legal votes much more important
 See the details below →

There is a small difference between men and women with women focusing slightly more on enabling the right to vote and less on fraud prevention than men.

The crosstabs
Dem
49%
18%
27%
Rep
24%
11%
55%
9%
Ind
9%
47%
18%
26%
fraud prevention much more importantfraud prevention somewhat more importantequally importantloss of legal votes somewhat more importantloss of legal votes much more important
 See the details below →

Among both Democrats and Republicans, about 50% believe that a vote suppressed and a fraudulent vote cast are equally bad. The difference is among the other half of each party: only 6% of Democrats but 35% of Republicans believe voter fraud is more important than voter suppression on a vote-by-vote basis, while only 10% of Republicans and 45% of Democrats believe that voter suppression is more important than voter fraud on a vote-by-vote basis.

While the outcome explains a difference in focus from both parties on voter fraud vs. voter suppression, it also shows that a majority believes that everyone should have exactly 1 vote in our democracy.

The Details

The answers as asked

Charts and tables use the short label at the start of each line.

  1. fraud prevention much more important: Preventing a single fraudulent vote is much more important than the loss of several legal votes.
  2. fraud prevention somewhat more important: Preventing a fraudulent vote is somewhat more important than losing a single legal vote.
  3. equally important: Preventing a fraudulent vote is equally important to avoiding the loss of a legal vote.
  4. loss of legal votes somewhat more important: Avoiding the loss of a legal vote is somewhat more important than preventing a fraudulent vote.
  5. loss of legal votes much more important: Avoiding the loss of a single legal vote is worth much more than preventing several fraudulent votes.

The full crosstab table

ActiVote · Voter Suppression vs Voter Fraud · November 23, 2020
ActiVote 296 RV fraud prevention much more important fraud prevention somewhat more important equally important loss of legal votes somewhat more important loss of legal votes much more important
National ±5.7% MoE 14% 5% 51% 13% 17%
Gender Men 15% 7% 52% 11% 16%
Women 13% 1% 50% 17% 19%
Age 18-29 16% 2% 57% 19% 6%
30-49 20% 5% 48% 9% 18%
50-64 3% 1% 66% 18% 11%
65+ 15% 13% 30% 6% 36%
Ethnicity White 12% 5% 53% 10% 19%
Black 32% 9% 48% 4% 7%
Latino 14% 7% 58% 15% 6%
Education High school 20% 7% 53% 7% 13%
Some college 11% 3% 48% 20% 16%
Bachelor's 11% 5% 52% 11% 22%
Income <50k 14% 8% 47% 16% 14%
50k-100k 19% 4% 55% 6% 15%
>100k 9% 2% 49% 18% 22%
Affiliation Dem 3% 3% 49% 18% 27%
Rep 24% 11% 55% 1% 9%
Ind 9% 0% 47% 18% 26%
Region Dark Red 23% 2% 57% 9% 9%
Light Red 26% 7% 49% 2% 17%
Swing 11% 4% 51% 15% 18%
Light Blue 0% 6% 55% 21% 19%
Dark Blue 11% 5% 49% 18% 18%
Methodology. Fielded November 2020 among 296 registered voters nationwide. Responses weighted by Demographics and Spectrum. Average expected error ±5.7%. See Why trust our polls? for the methodology, disclosures and accuracy record.