UW Survey Finds High Public Confidence in State Election Integrity

Questions of accuracy of vote counts in the 2020 presidential election continue to roil American politics. In contrast, a recent poll of Wyoming residents conducted by the University of Wyoming finds the people of Equality State have great confidence in how elections are handled.

Ninety-four percent of survey respondents say they are “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that their votes will be counted accurately in Wyoming this year. At the same time, Wyomingites continued to be split on the accuracy of the vote counts across the nation in 2020.

Telephone interviews with 436 Wyoming residents selected at random were conducted Oct. 22-Nov. 3 by UW’s Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center’s Survey Research Center. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

Jim King, the survey’s director and a professor of political science, says the poll results fit patterns found elsewhere in the United States.

“A national survey conducted in mid-October by the Pew Research Center found 90 percent of Americans believing this year’s elections will be administered ‘very well’ or ‘somewhat well,’” King says. “The difference between our Wyoming poll and the national poll can be attributed to the margin of error that is present in any survey.”

There are minor differences across political affiliations, according to King.

“Five out of six Democrats, 83 percent, report being very confident in election administration, compared to 64 percent of independents and 56 percent of Republicans,” King says. “Nonetheless, when the two highest levels of confidence are combined, the partisan differences disappear, with 98 percent of Democrats, 95 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of independents reporting being very confident or somewhat confident in the administration of elections in Wyoming.”

Perspectives of the accuracy of the vote counts in the last presidential election have not changed over the past two years.

“Immediately after the 2020 election, 48 percent of our Wyoming survey respondents expressed confidence in the accuracy of the presidential vote count nationwide,” King says. “The comparable figure in this year’s survey is 50 percent, a statistically insignificant difference.”

As before, partisan differences are evident, with 33 percent of Republicans, 58 percent of independents and 98 percent of Democrats confident of the accuracy of the 2020 vote count.

Biennial surveys of Wyoming residents are conducted by UW’s School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies in partnership with the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center. The questions focus on attitudes toward government, elected officials, candidates for office and contemporary policy issues.