Americans on the Election: God Forbid It Should Go to the Court!

[Passages]

A new Pew survey shows the public thinks the Supreme Court is the single most partisan overseer and adjudicator of elections.

by Harold Meyerson October 28, 2024

When he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered his nomination for chief justice in 2005, John Roberts likened the Court’s role to that of an umpire, simply calling balls and strikes as the justices saw them

Today, 19 years after Roberts began presiding over the Supreme Court, Americans overwhelmingly believe that the Court would rule a pitch that sailed over the backstop was a strike if that somehow enabled Republicans to win a crucial election.

Last Thursday, the Pew Research Center released a survey of more than 4,000 registered voters gauging their levels of confidence in the fairness and accuracy of the electoral process in the upcoming presidential election. It found that 73 percent of all voters (90 percent of Harris supporters and 57 percent of Trump supporters) were confident that “the elections will be run well.” Breaking that down to particulars, 97 percent of Harris supporters and 84 percent of Trump supporters thought their local poll workers would do a good job; 62 percent of the Harrisites and 36 percent of the Trumpies were very confident about this. When asked the same question about the “officials who run elections in your state,” 91 percent of the Harrisites and 72 percent of the Trumpies affirmed that they thought those officials would do a good job, too.

Keep in mind that the state election officials in whom these voters expressed confidence are elected officials, the vast majority of them elected in partisan elections, and all of them, including those elected in nonpartisan elections, with clear partisan affiliations.
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-28-americans-election-supreme-court/

[slightlv]

1. While those workers are elected in partisan elections,

being local, I think they have a lot more contact with the populace as a whole. I know the head of our department here is a republican, and finding that out blew away all presuppositions I had. She is beyond fair and non-partisan, as is everyone in her department. I've had dealings with them twice... once when I was panicked my vote wouldn't be counted.

Now, that doesn't say anything about those that have been put into place since 2020 and the magas trying to rig things in their favor. It's just that at least some of these people take their jobs and their duties very seriously, and are more than helpful when problems arise, regardless of who you are.

Now, ask me about sending it to my legislature, and I'll tell you I don't trust them any further than I can throw them... and these days, that's a lot shorter distance than it used to be!

[Passages]

2. Great insight, thank you for sharing it.