Americans' faith in US election integrity drops: Poll

Americans' faith in the integrity of their country’s election system has dropped following the events of Jan. 6, a new poll shows.

Now, just 20% of the public say that it is very confident about the system, a new ABC/Ipsos poll finds.

The new findings show a significant fall from 37% in an ABC News/Washington Post poll carried out in the days after the insurrection last year.

The lack of strong confidence in the US’ ability to hold an honest election crosses partisan lines.

Among Democrats, 30% believe they are very confident in the election systems overall, while among, only 1 in 5 consider themselves "very confident" in the country’s elections.

And among Republicans, only 13% are very confident, with a significant majority (59%) having little faith in the system.

They say they either are "not so confident" or "not confident at all," a snapshot of increasing skepticism a year after the attack on the US Capitol.

During the attack, thousands of former president Donald Trump’s supporters attacked police, vandalized the Capitol and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives on that day.

When asked to mention one word to describe what happened on Jan. 6, an overwhelming almost 70% responded with a critical description.

The top five words used to describe the Jan. 6 were insurrection, treason, riot, chaos and disgust, according to the ABC/Ipsos poll.

Meanwhile, earlier data reported by ABC/Ipsos found that large shares of Republicans felt that Joe Biden's election was not legitimate alongside thoughts that the rioters on Jan. 6 might have been attempting to protect democracy, rather than threaten it.

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Nevertheless, in the new poll, GOP respondents also communicated very few warm feelings about the riots themselves when asked what word comes to mind to describe that event.

The most frequently used one-word responses among Republicans were critical, with "chaos," "disgust," "disgrace" and "crazy" as top terms. Democrats' language, on the other hand, was far more dire, with the lion's share choosing the term "insurrection," "treason" and "terrorism."

"Fake," "protest" and "setup" were among the very few sympathetic terms chosen regarding the Jan. 6 attacks. Less than 2% of respondents mentioned these.

Political scientist William Howell told ABC News that "widespread distrust in our electoral system overlays deep divisions over our democracy.”

“Republicans lack confidence, in no small part, because of lies propagated by their leaders. And Democrats lack confidence because of ongoing efforts of Republicans to politicize the administration of elections. This is a bad equilibrium," Howell, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said in a statement to the news channel.

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