Feeling anxious about the 2024 election? You're not alone. Perhaps you are hopeful about the election — some agree with you.
In an exclusive Scripps News and Ipsos poll, 328 Wisconsin voters were asked: What describes your feeling about Election Day?
39% said anxious, 29% said they were hopeful, another 19% indicated they were afraid, 16% said optimistic, and 19% said pessimistic.
The Wisconsin poll mostly reflected the mood nationwide when voters across the country were asked the same question.
The last two presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than one percentage point. President Trump won in 2016, and President Biden carried the state in 2020. Biden's win produced multiple legal challenges and a recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties by Trump.
How confident are Wisconsin voters that all the votes in the 2024 election will be counted accurately? 62% said they were very confident or somewhat confident.
With nearly 200,000 early in-person votes already cast in Wisconsin as of Oct. 24, 86% of poll respondents believed in-person voting on Election Day was secure — meaning protected from fraud — and 80% felt the same about in-person voting before Election Day. That percentage drops to 65% for mail-in voting and 59% for using ballot drop boxes.
After the 2020 election, the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that absentee ballot drop boxes were not legal and could no longer be used in Wisconsin. But this year, the liberal-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed course and concluded drop boxes are legal.
Watch: Whitefish Bay's election clerk explains how your vote gets counted:
The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) left it up to each municipality to decide if they want to use them. WEC is aware of 78 drop boxes in use for the 2024 elections, compared to more than 500 in 2020.
A majority of Wisconsin voters in the poll — 77% — appear ready to accept the results if their preferred candidate wins. However, if their candidate doesn't win, 51% say they will challenge those results legally and accept the court ruling.
President Trump has continued to claim he didn’t lose the 2020 election, telling supporters at Wisconsin rallies he wants a win that is “too big to rig.”
Republicans and Democrats both say they are preparing for legal challenges over the 2024 election results.
The Ipsos poll was conducted between Oct. 18-20. The margin of error was +/- 6%.
Find out where to vote, what's on your ballot, and much more on TMJ4's elections page here.
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