By: Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints
Confidence of Americans in their elections is “notably one of the worst ratings” across the world’s democracies,” says the Gallup polling firm, which found lower ratings only in Chile and Mexico.
Regardless of whether you think our elections are clean in fact, don’t deny that public confidence in them has crumbled or that lost confidence, in itself, is dangerous – and potentially explosive.
And don’t think for a minute that lost confidence is limited to Trump supporters who deny the 2020 election results. Poll after poll says otherwise. A recent Public Affairs Council/Morning Consult poll found that only a bit over one-third (37%) of Americans believe the coming elections will be honest and open to all eligible voters. Another poll by the Angus Reid Institute found only a third of Americans saying they’d accept the results of the coming 2024 presidential election regardless of the victor. And a Rasmussen poll found that a majority of independents and a majority of Democrats, as well as others, are concerned that cheating will affect the outcome of the next presidential election.
Lost faith in elections means lost faith in government’s legitimacy, which is the dangerous part. It’s the route to extreme division and strife, perhaps leading to violence. And lost faith in government’s legitimacy may well be the path we are on, as other polls show. Last year, according to Pew Research Center, just 20% said they trusted the government always or most of the time. It’s hardly just conservatives, again, when it comes to lost faith in government. Only 25% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they trust the federal government always or most of the time, Pew found.
Illinois, however, has embraced the measures contributing to that lost confidence in elections.
Some were in a boast by Gov. JB Pritzker on election day last month, writing this on Facebook and Twitter: “Here in Illinois, our elections are protected. We’re not scared of more of our people exercising their right to vote. That’s why we’ve expanded early voting, curbside voting, and made the vote-by-mail registry permanent to protect your fundamental right.”
Pritzker was mocked brutally for those claims in a huge number of responses, almost all of which were negative.
The consequences of lost confidence played out in the March primary election for Cook County State’s Attorney. That race attracted national attention because it pitted Clayton Harris, who opponents regarded as a criminal-friendly successor to Kim Foxx, against Eileen O’Neill Burke, who claimed to be for law and order.
Read more here.
Related: “81% of registered Illinois voters failed to turn out for April primary”
