By CHRISTINE FERNANDO and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s deep partisan divisions extend to confidence in the vote count for this year’s election, as a new poll finds Republicans far more skeptical than Democrats about the accuracy of ballot counting.

Voters are generally more distrustful of national election results than tallies conducted by their own local election offices, according to the survey. Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center.

About half of registered Republican voters have “a lot” or “somewhat” confidence that the vote will be counted accurately by their local election officials and about 4 in 10 say the same about their state’s vote count, but only about a quarter of them have at least “somewhat” confidence in the national count.

The overall level of confidence among Republican voters in all three, however, is lower than among Democratic voters. About three-quarters of Democrats say they are at least “somewhat” confident that votes will be counted accurately nationally, in their state or by their local election officials.

This year’s election marks former President Donald Trump’s first presidential race since the start. a campaign of lies about a stolen election in 2020 — a story which undermined public confidence in the election results among a large portion of conservative voters, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Election experts have warned that Trump could be lay the foundations to contest the elections again if he loses.

David Farrington, a 78-year-old conservative from Fort Worth, Texas, said he was wary of mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxestwo common targets for allegations of voter fraud and election conspiracies attempting to sow distrust in the election results.

“It’s not the vote count that worries me,” Farrington said. “I have every confidence in all the precincts and their ability to count the ballots there. But the ballots, we don’t know if they’re legitimate or not.”

Conversely, Ruth Edwards, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher in Tampa, Florida, said she had “never seen any evidence that the election was rigged.”

“It’s just people who are upset about their candidate losing who are now claiming it’s rigged without any evidence,” said Edwards, a Democrat. “This is ridiculous.”

Overall, voters are more likely to believe that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local or state election officials rather than by the country as a whole, according to the poll. About 6 in 10 voters have “a lot” or “somewhat” confidence that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local or state election officials, while about half say that about votes counted nationally.

About a quarter of respondents in each case have “a moderate degree” of confidence. About 3 in 10 people say they have “some” or no confidence in the national count, while fewer say that about their state or local count.

Drew Inman, a 31-year-old Republican working in law enforcement in New Jersey, said he was skeptical about the accuracy of vote counts across the board, but particularly in counties outside his own.

“I really have more confidence in the local vote count than I do in the national vote count,” he said. “…When you expand to the national level, there are many more people involved and that can create corruption. »