© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Poll Shows Republican Concern Over Voter Inaccuracies

Ryan Poppe

A new pollput out by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune shows the number of Republican voters concerned about the possibility of voter fraud occurring during this election outweighs that of likely Democratic voters  in Texas.   

Jim Henson with UT’s Texas Politics Project and lead author of the latest poll says for decades Republicans leaders in the state have sounded the alarm when came to voter fraud being a problem and have pushed for controversial voter laws.  He says that rhetoric along with Donald Trump’s message about a “rigged” election is causing a number of Republican voters in Texas to be concerned about voter fraud being a problem during this election.

“On one hand you do have the Secretary of State urging people to vote, defending the voting system.  On the other hand there’s been a long political discussion that dates back to the passage of the Voter ID Law in Texas and the defense of that law,” Henson explains.

Henson says 78-percent of likely Republican voters polled say they were extremely concerned with people who are ineligible to vote being allowed to cast a ballot versus 26-percent of Democrats having the same concern.

Henson says when it comes to more systemic problems like voter inaccuracies and problems with electronic voting machines the results are a little more evenly split.

“Democrats, 47-percent are concerned, but Republicans concerned about that a lot, 72 percent of Republicans are concerned,” Henson says

In the last few weeks leading up to the Nov. 8th election, leadership at the capitol, including Gov. Greg Abbott, has attempted to gain voters' confidence by talking about the security of Texas’ electoral system but also urging voters – especially straight party voters – to double check their selections before hitting “Cast Ballot” 

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.