US Republicans, independents express low trust in election integrity: Poll

A Gallup survey highlights a deep – and historic – partisan divide over confidence in the country’s elections.

With less than a month to go before the United States’ pivotal midterms, a new survey found that most independent voters and supporters of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party do not believe the elections will be honest.

Polling from Gallup, released on Wednesday, found ۳۷ percent of Republicans and ۳۵ percent of independents have confidence in the country’s electoral system, significantly lower than US Democrats (۶۳ percent).

Overall, ۴۹ percent of Americans said they were confident in the honesty of elections, while ۵۱ percent said they were not. Those figures are unchanged from the country’s last midterm election in ۲۰۲۲.

This “marks a change from ۲۰۲۵, the first year of Trump’s second term, when confidence was nominally higher among approvers (۵۱ percent) than disapprovers (۴۵ percent)”, Gallup wrote in a statement highlighting the results of the survey.

The numbers highlight a deep, historic partisan divide over confidence in US elections.

“Since ۲۰۲۵ and Trump’s return to the White House, the relationship between leadership approval and confidence in elections has disappeared,” Gallup wrote.

Gallup said that the US is the only country out of more than ۱۰۰ polled annually over the past ۱۵ years to show this pattern – trust in US election integrity is markedly higher among those who disapprove of the country’s leadership under Trump (۵۲ percent) than those who approve (۴۱ percent).

In more than ۱۰۰ countries where the polling organisation tracks views of national leadership and confidence in elections, people who approve of their governments have generally been more likely to trust their country’s elections.

In ۲۰۲۵, ۷۰ percent of people globally who approved of their national leadership expressed confidence in the honesty of their elections, compared with ۳۰ percent among those who disapproved.

“The current US pattern is highly unusual compared with the rest of the world,” Gallup wrote.

Under former US President Joe Biden, ۸۱ percent of Americans who approved of the government expressed confidence in elections, compared with just ۳۰ percent of those who disapproved, according to Gallup.

Gallup said the unusual divide could have implications for the November elections, raising questions about whether some voters will view the results as legitimate.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.