KSTP/SurveyUSA Poll Results: MN Voters Trust Election Security, Not Peaceful Transition – ABC 6 News

(KSTP) – More than 919,000 Minnesotans have cast ballots since early voting began on September 20. That is currently about 600,000 fewer than during the 2020 election surrounding the COVID pandemic, but more than double the number compared to 2016.

With all those early ballots already cast, how confident are Minnesotans that the ballots are secure and will be counted in an accurate and timely manner?

According to our latest KSTP-TV/SurveyUSA pre-election poll, 47% have “high” confidence in secure elections and another 29% have some confidence. Fourteen percent have some confidence and six percent have no confidence at all.

Political analyst Steven Schier of Carleton College says the fact that 76% have “great” or “some” confidence in election security is encouraging. So far, Minnesotans have confidence in their election system and that will likely lead to less controversy on Election Day,” Schier told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS after reviewing our survey results.

However, questions have already been asked about this a few times this fall ballot boxes are left unattended at Edina City Hall and a few counties had inaccurate ballots that needed to be corrected. That appears to have affected Republican confidence more than Democrats or independents.

According to our poll, only 25% of Republicans have confidence in the security of the election, compared to 69% of Democrats and 43% of independents. “Questions have been raised about election administration,” Schier said, “but Minnesotans generally have a higher level of trust in government than Americans in general, and this is an example of that.”

Minnesotans are generally less confident in a peaceful transition of power, regardless of who wins the presidential election. Only 46% say they are confident that a peaceful transition will take place and 40% say they are not confident. However, it is one of the few areas where all three groups are close to agreement on a particular issue. Forty-seven percent of Republicans, 46% of Democrats and 47% of independents have confidence in a peaceful transition.

We also asked Minnesota voters about media coverage of the presidential candidates. Thirty-two percent of respondents say it has been fair to both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, while 33% say it has been unfair to Trump. Another 12% say the reporting has been unfair to Harris and 10% say unfair to both.

“A large number of Minnesotans believe the media has been unfair to Donald Trump,” Schier said. “This also reflects national surveys that indicate this. But you also have to keep in mind that the media world is now really fragmented and that the mainstream media no longer has control over reporting as it did twenty years ago.”

SurveyUSA interviewed 900 adults from the state of Minnesota from 10/24/24 through 10/28/24. Of the adults, 801 were identified as eligible to vote; of registered voters, SurveyUSA found that 728 are likely to vote in the November general election. They were asked the following substantive questions. This study was conducted online using a non-probability sample of online adult panelists randomly selected by Lucid Holdings LLC of New Orleans. The combined group of survey respondents was weighted by the US Census ACS targets for gender, age, race, education and home ownership, and by the 2020 presidential election.