Heading into the 2024 presidential election, a slight majority of Georgia voters prefer sticking with the state’s touchscreen voting machines and say they’re confident the election will be conducted fairly.
A new poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows that 56% of Georgians oppose switching to paper ballots filled out by hand, and 57% are at least somewhat confident the presidential election will be fair and accurate.
The poll’s results are similar to previous surveys since the 2020 election, with conservative voters expressing deeper doubts after Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, while liberals and moderates feel more comfortable.
“If there were any voting inaccuracies, I doubt very seriously that Joe Biden would have won the state,” said Michael Lee, an engineer from Mableton. “The fact that the secretary of state (Brad Raffensperger) pushed back when Trump asked him to find additional votes, even though they’re in the same party, gave me a higher sense of security and confidence.”
Other voters say their trust in elections remains shattered by Trump’s allegations surrounding the 2020 election that have since been debunked, including claims of ballot counting problems at State Farm Arena and dead voters. Multiple investigations and three vote counts confirmed the results.
“To say I’m concerned would be an understatement,” said Mike Thigpen, a pastor from Wrens. “This is a farce, a joke. What do we know about these Dominion voting machines? You put your vote in, it sends it off, and it comes back the way you want it to come back. How else would the Democratic Party win anything?”
Republicans have won almost all statewide elections over the past 20 years in Georgia, including every contest conducted on Dominion machines in 2020 and 2022 except for races for president and the U.S. Senate.
The poll was conducted Jan. 3-11 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs and involved 1,007 registered voters. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.
Georgia’s voting system, purchased for $107 million in 2019, uses touchscreens that print out paper ballots, which are then counted by scanning machines. A trial is underway in federal court over whether the voting technology is secure or vulnerable to tampering.
Meanwhile, the Georgia General Assembly is considering changes to election laws, including the possibility of eliminating computer codes from printed ballots. Leading lawmakers have also proposed discarding Dominion’s touchscreens and converting the state to hand-marked paper ballots.
“I don’t feel secure in any kind of system anymore. Whatever they choose, they can try to put security on it, but one way or another, I don’t have confidence,” said Minerva Vasquez of Dahlonega, who works in customer service at a bank. “I believe more the people who say the election was stolen than the people who say it wasn’t.”
The poll indicates that voters’ opinions about elections have solidified since the 2020 election.
In a previous AJC poll two years ago, the same rate of those surveyed (55%) also said they opposed replacing Georgia’s voting system with hand-marked paper ballots.
After voter confidence rose from 56% in January 2022 to 73% a year later, it has now reverted to 57% as the presidential election nears and Trump has continued to complain that the 2020 vote was rigged while he runs again for the Republican nomination.
Just 45% of conservatives who participated in the poll said they were confident this year’s election would be fair and accurate, compared with 76% of liberals and 63% of moderates.
The poll indicated an increase in the number of voters, 46%, who say there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Previously, 38% said they thought there was widespread fraud in AJC polls from January 2021 and January 2022.
Nakisa Frazier, a tech adviser from Stockbridge, said she retains her trust in elections. She said complaints about elections come from partisans who are upset that their candidate — Trump — lost in Georgia.
“I work in tech, and I see there’s rarely a chance of error,” Frazier said. “Everything seems legit. I haven’t seen any problems. I don’t think there’s going to be fraud in the 2024 election because they seem to be putting a lot of effort into making sure that doesn’t happen. ”
AJC poll
The poll was conducted Jan. 3-11 for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. It questioned 1,007 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Since 2019 the state has been using a new voting system that uses touchscreens to print out paper ballots. Do you support or oppose replacing this system with paper ballots that would be filled out by hand?
Strongly support – 25%
Somewhat support – 9%
Somewhat oppose – 19%
Strongly oppose – 37%
Don’t know – 12%
How confident are you that the 2024 presidential election will be conducted fairly and accurately?
Very confident – 26%
Somewhat confident – 31%
Not so confident – 17%
Not at all confident – 23%
Don’t know – 3%
Do you believe there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election?
Yes – 46%
No – 48%
Don’t know – 6%
Poll information: The survey was administered by the School of Public and International Affairs Survey Research Center at the University of Georgia. The AJC-SPIA Poll was conducted Jan. 3-11 and included a total of 1,007 registered voters in Georgia. The calculated margin of error for the total sample is +/-3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Some totals may not equal 100% because of rounding.
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