Fewer Voters Than Ever Believe U.S. Elections are Fair

With faith already lacking in the government and the economy, U.S. voters now have less confidence than ever in the fairness of elections.

A new Rasmussen Reports national survey finds that just 43% of Likely Voters believe American elections are fair to voters. That’s the lowest finding to date. Almost as many (42%) now say elections are not fair to voters, the highest finding since surveying on the question began in 2004. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In May, 54% said American elections are fair to voters. Until now, that number had hovered in the narrow range of 49% to 54%, while the number who said elections are not fair had consistently remained below 40%.

Perhaps that helps explain why 59% of voters believe members of Congress get reelected because elections are rigged in their benefit. Just 12% think it is because members of Congress do a good job representing their constituents, a new low. Twenty-nine percent (29%) are not sure which better explains why members of Congress get reelected.

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The national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 1-2, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC .See methodology.