Majorities In Both Parties Believe Other Party Will Use Voter Fraud To Win

Some results from recent polling by Public Policy Polling doesn’t bode well for post-election America if the election ends up being close:

-In Ohio 62% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 50% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.

-In Florida 60% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 55% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.

-In North Carolina 69% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 51% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.

Poll a few other states like Virginia, Nevada, Iowa, and Colorado and I bet you’d find similar numbers. Anyone who thinks that there will be any hatchets buried after the election is over is fooling themselves.

H/T: Balloon Juice

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Tillman says:

    I recall Greg Palast making similar predictions about Republican voter fraud in 2008. It’s no wonder voter ID laws can pass as easily as they do if everyone believes the other side will cheat to win.

  2. michael reynolds says:

    Fox News has spent years poisoning minds on the Right. Given an electorate that is older and dumber it’s worked.

    The facts are that there is no evidence of Democratic vote rigging. There is an abundance of evidence that the GOP has returned to the days of Jim Crow in trying to use government power to keep minorities from voting.

    This is not “one the hand.” This is: the GOP is plainly guilty.

  3. @michael reynolds:

    And there were Democrats saying that Diebold voting machines gave Ohio to Bush in 2004.

  4. mattb says:

    Sad, but not surprising.

    It’s hard to remember the last time the party that lost accepted the legitimacy of the President. Perhaps 1992 — though all of the congressional investigations of Clinton make that a little dodgy. 1988?

  5. Tillman says:

    @Doug Mataconis: I think rational people can agree that there is a difference between accusations of voter fraud and anti-voter fraud legislation.

  6. Neil Hudelson says:

    Most people do not understand what voter fraud is.

    The fraud that hits the newspapers–like paid voter registrars writing in “Mickey Mouse” on a form–is voter registration fraud.

    The newspapers, however, almost always label it voter fraud. I would hasten to say the amount of times voter registration fraud (what little exists) is actually labeled voter registration fraud is less than 1%.

    I don’t blame Republicans or Democrats for people thinking voter fraud is rampant. Stories are sensationalized and misreported. One paid registrar f-s up 12 forms? An assault on our election process!

    The republicans, however, are the ones capitalizing on this to suppress votes. Is this fraud? No. It’s just immoral.

  7. gVOR08 says:

    The Right can see an old video of two New Black Panthers standing around looking foolish, imaginary union thugs, and the supposed devilish machinations of the dreaded Chicago machine ca. 1960.

    The Left can see a stream of legislation actually passed, resulting lawsuits, and the occasional slip by Republican officials admitting their intent. Here in Ohio, the Sec of State stipulated in court that they had no evidence of in person vote fraud having ever occurred.

    Acorn was forced to fold having committed no actual improprieties beyond turning in all the registration forms they got, as they are required to by law, and they identified the flawed forms. The RNC hired a firm to do voter registration and were forced to fire them in the face of well substantiated charges they had refused to register Democrats and had shredded registration forms, both illegal.

    I guess both sides do it.

  8. Geek, Esq. says:

    What we’re looking at is a close election where the incumbent–whose political style is that of consensus building–is about to get defeated by the most ideologically extreme and uncompromising major political party in our history.

    I can sure as heck tell you what lesson Democrats are going to learn–that nonstop ideological warfare and demonization of the other side is the only path to electoral victory and achieving policy aims. The way of Obama–seeking unity and common ground–will be to Democrats what it’s already become to Republicans.

  9. KariQ says:

    Given that Ohio’s GOP Secretary of State is doing everything he can to restrict access to voting, and all the other measures taken across the country to make it more difficult to vote, it seems a reasonable conclusion that Republicans are engaging in voter suppression. I don’t think they will engage in widespread fraud, though.

  10. PJ says:

    @gVOR08:

    The Left can see a stream of legislation actually passed, resulting lawsuits, and the occasional slip by Republican officials admitting their intent. Here in Ohio, the Sec of State stipulated in court that they had no evidence of in person vote fraud having ever occurred.

    And you can add Republicans being convicted for supressing the vote to that list.

  11. Fiona says:

    @Geek, Esq.:

    Let’s have an election before we see who comes out on top.

    If Obama wins, Republicans will scream voter fraud. If Romney wins, Democrats will scream voter suppression. Rinse and repeat four years from now.

  12. bill says:
  13. David M says:

    @bill:

    And voter ID would have stopped that how? Thanks for proving michael reynolds’ point, the GOP are passing voter ID laws that will keep minorities from voting, and do not address a real problem.

  14. bill says:

    @David M: read what i replied to from his post;

    “The facts are that there is no evidence of Democratic vote rigging. There is an abundance of evidence that the GOP has returned to the days of Jim Crow in trying to use government power to keep minorities from voting.”

    must have erased “acorn” from memory?!

    and how do minorities feel suppressed by having to show an id to vote? never heard a rational answer to that question. plus, jim crow laws were democrats anyway, how does one return to what one never was?!

  15. OzarkHillbilly says:

    and how do minorities feel suppressed by having to show an id to vote?

    OK. Try this on for size: You are poor, black, elderly and live in North St. Louis. You were born in Alabama the daughter of a share cropper back in the day when most births were at home. No birth certificate at present in your possession. Not even sure if one exists. So how does one such person go about getting a photo ID with out spending hundreds of dollars?

    Oh, right, you are going to volunteer to pay for it…. when pigs fly. These people exist. They are real Americans. And their votes are every bit as important as yours. But then, that is why people like you want to take them away from them.

    Oh, and for the record? The only time I have had to show my ID in the past few years has been when I am working at Fort Leonard Wood. If I didn’t work there, I wouldn’t have needed to show one at all.

  16. bill says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: that was an episode on “newsroom”….always the “poor old black woman…..”.
    and for every one of those, there’s more of these;

    http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/video-captures-dem-campaign-chief-plotting-vote-fraud/