Polling Indicates That Voters Are Skeptical of Expanding Federal Control Over Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A national survey by Scott Rasmussen conducted from May 5-7 indicates that voters are skeptical of the Biden Administration’s recent actions to expand the federal government’s role in the electoral process. In March, President Biden issued an executive order that directs federal agencies to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.” Highlights from the survey are as follows:

• When asked if government agencies should be required to assist in voter registration efforts or focus on the missions and purposes of their agencies, 53 percent answered that these agencies should focus on their original missions and purposes.
• When asked if Biden’s order, which calls for a government-wide effort to register and mobilize select groups of voters, is appropriate or inappropriate, 47 percent responded that it is inappropriate.
• When asked if Biden’s plan will be used in a neutral manner or to help Democrats, 47 percent agreed that it would be used to help Democrats.
• The proposal would also provide funding for activist groups to register voters. Only 14 percent of voters strongly favor this provision of the plan.
• At the end of the survey, when asked if they support President Biden’s executive order now knowing the finer details of it, only 19 percent of respondents answered that they strongly favor the plan, as opposed to 30 percent at the beginning of the survey.

Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks President, commented:

“Biden and his Democrat allies couldn’t get the votes to pass their ‘voting rights’ bills earlier this year, so now the president is once again attempting to legislate through executive fiat. That he has to circumvent the legislative process to implement any of his priorities is proof enough that his policies are unpopular with the American people, but this survey from Scott Rasmussen clarifies this truth even further. Americans are skeptical of the federal government strengthening its grip on our electoral process, a process that is supposed to fall under the jurisdiction of state legislatures. The president would be wise to roll back his order directing the bureaucracy to get involved in and politicize our elections.”

(Methodology: This Counterpolling™ survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on May 5-7, 2022. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.8 percentage points.)