(The Center Square) – Wisconsin voters are very confident in the state’s elections, with 54% of respondents saying so in a new poll released by the bipartisan Democracy Defense Project.
That’s a 7 percentage point increase in those who said they were very confident after the 2024 presidential election.
The polling was conducted with the Tarrance Group and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates asking 600 registered likely voters in Wisconsin questions from April 7-10.
“Wisconsin elections are important as ever and we will continue to have all eyes on us as we head into another election cycle,” the defense project members said in a statement. “Despite running a tight ship throughout the election season and faith in election integrity rising, Wisconsin still has a reputation problem.
“There has been an erosion of faith in our democracy with politicians undermining election integrity to bolster their campaign allowing false narratives about ‘stolen elections’ to take root.”
The Wisconsin group includes former Attorney General JB Van Hollen, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, former U.S. Representative Scott Klug and former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate.
Van Hollen and Klug were Republican politicians while Barnes and Tate were Democrats.
The poll showed that 48% don’t trust what will happen in Milwaukee County, up 2 percentage points from a July 2024 poll.
But those who believe election workers and officials are “partisans trying to manipulate the process” went down 12 points.
Most of the respondents believe that pre-processing of ballots on Monday of elections to speed up the process of vote counting is a good idea with 76% supporting the idea, 40% of which strongly supported it.
Voters also want statewide drop box rules with 79% favoring it and 51% strongly supporting the idea.
“This poll shows we need to continue working to restore faith and trust in institutions currently under attack and we need a two-pronged approach to educate voters on the process to restore credibility and we need reforms like pre-processing to instill more confidence in the process,” the group said. “These together will bring meaningful change.”
