Poll: Most Pa. voters ‘dissatisfied’ with state’s election system

By John L. Micek, Capital-Star

HARRISBURG, PA – More than two years of Republican attacks on the legitimacy on the state and the nation’s electoral system appears to have taken its toll, with more than half of Pennsylvanians saying they’re dissatisfied with the way the state conducts its elections.

The 52 percent of respondents to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll who expressed that dissatisfaction are double the 24 percent who gave the same answer in August 2020 — three months before former President Donald Trump launched his attacks on the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory in November 2020.

The responses F&M’s pollsters gleaned from 792 registered voters (357 Democrats, 352 Republicans, and 110 independents) in the Keystone State are reflective of the broader argument over voting rights taking place at the national level.

That dissatisfaction runs heaviest among Republicans, with 72 percent of self-identified GOP voters saying they’re somewhat or very dissatisfied with the current system.

Conversely, 66 percent of Democratic respondents say they’re happy with the current system, according to the poll. A majority of independents, 57 percent, said they were dissatisfied with the current system.

The loudest calls for change among the dissatisfied were for voter identification requirements (26 percent) and the elimination of mail-in ballots (19 percent), according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
Nearly two-thirds of Republican respondents (64 percent) said they supported eliminating ballot drop boxes. All are policy goals that have been sought by the state Legislature’s Republican majority since the last presidential election. A majority of all respondents, however, (54 percent) opposed eliminating them.

Elsewhere, the poll found broad-based support (64 percent) for opening up the state’s primary elections to all Pennsylvania voters. Right now, the spring contests only are open to registered Republicans and Democrats.

In other reform matters, a clear majority of respondents 54 percent, also support a top-two system that would result in a runoff.

That’s about the same number of voters who responded the same way to both questions when pollsters checked in on this question in August 2020.

Nearly nine in 10 respondents (89 percent) said they favor term limits for state lawmakers. And less than one in five (18 percent) believe the 253-member General Assembly, among the nation’s largest and most expensive, is doing an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ job, according to the poll.

With less than two weeks to go before the polls open, the GOP nominating race for governor remains wide open.
Among the top tier, state Sen. Doug Mastriano , R-Franklin (20 percent); former federal prosecutor Bill McSwain (12 percent); former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (11 percent) and ex-Delaware County Councilmember Dave White (8 percent) all are running within the margin, or close to it.

Still, nearly a third of respondents, 34 percent are undecided. And even among those who have settled on a candidate, 53 percent said they could change their minds.

“The Republican gubernatorial candidates are relatively unknown among registered Republicans, with about half of respondents reporting they don’t know enough about White (59 percent), McSwain (54 percent), Mastriano (51 percent), or Barletta (47 percent) to have an opinion,” according to the poll.