Are election results legitimate? NJ voters still not trusting the process

⚫ NJ voters remain skeptic about the 2020 election

⚫ Doubts are carrying over to the 2024 race

⚫ Neither presidential candidate receives great scores among NJ residents

Distrust in the American election process is still alive and well in the Garden State.

According to a new poll out of Stockton University, plenty of New Jersey voters don't believe the 2020 presidential election was honest and secure. And they don't have much confidence in the upcoming race either.

Skepticism remains in tact from when Stockton asked the same questions in 2021.

In 2024, sixty-three percent of voters believe the 2020 race was fair and secure. Thirty-three percent disagree.

The findings present a massive partisan gap. Just 25% of Republicans trust the 2020 election process, compared with 96% of Democrats, according to the new poll.

"Trust in institutions has been declining for decades, so it's certainly not a new phenomenon," said Alyssa Maurice, director of research for the Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton. "But what we have since (Donald) Trump is, this downward trend in trust is far more dramatic among Republicans."

Looking ahead, 38% of Republicans and 96% of Democrats in the poll are confident that votes will be accurately cast and counted in this year's election.

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“The poll goes to show that years after Jan. 6 and the election turmoil of 2020, election distrust is pretty much baked in among a certain group of voters,” Maurice said. “Despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud, this skepticism is not budging.”

The parties aligned on the topics of misinformation and political violence. Republicans and Democrats are equally concerned about these issues, Maurice said.

2024 ballot

In the poll of 630 registered voters, the economy (or inflation) comes out as the top issue on residents' minds ahead of the 2024 race, followed by border security and abortion rights.

The poll recorded a 50% favorability rating for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Donald Trump's rating is at 43% (that's up since October 2020).

Forty-eight percent of respondents have a somewhat or very unfavorable impression of Harris; 54% have an unfavorable impression of Trump.

Name recognition remains a struggle among both candidates for the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey.  Fifty-five percent of poll respondents said they were unfamiliar with or unsure about Andy Kim; 81% of respondents said the same about Curtis Bashaw.

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