AUSTIN, Texas — A June 2019 poll by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin and The Texas Tribune reveals in Texas, party affiliation impacts attitudes toward problems with elections.
"What we see is a real legitimacy crisis in the state over the electoral system because partisans see the election system in such different ways," said Dr. Jim Henson, Ph.D., Director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin.
Dr. Henson has conducted polling through the Texas Politics Project for years and said voters are routinely asked questions about election integrity. This month's results show a great divide when it comes to election integrity.
"If you ask people whether the system discriminates against ethnic minorities and racial groups, Democrats unambiguously think that it is," Dr. Henson said. "Republicans unambiguously think that it is not."
When it comes to voter fraud, the poll revealed 42% of Republicans believe non-citizens "frequently" vote in Texas elections, compared to just 6% of Democrats. And 33% of Republicans think it "sometimes" happens, compared to 13% of Democrats.
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"We don't want to lose sight of the objective facts, that people who think that there is a rash of illegal voting going on hold this belief without much evidence," Dr. Henson said.
But evidence or not, what people think is what they talk about -- and that influences policy.
"For us to get beyond this divide, we probably do need some kind of very powerful, bipartisan leadership that will enable voters to follow elites leads in saying, 'We're going to solve this. We're going to resolve this on an empirical basis, in an evidence-based assessment of what our elections policies should be and proceed that way.' And we're certainly not seeing that in Texas," Dr. Henson said.
Dr. Henson believes that charge would have to come from a top elected official. And the reason it hasn't happened is because there's no incentive. Dr. Henson said the Republican party remains the controlling party in Texas and, currently, elections are working in their favor.
On Wednesday, UT and the Tribune released more data from its poll.
They found 48% of Texas voters think abortion should not be allowed after six weeks of pregnancy, and 78% believe that the state should require children to be vaccinated.
Texans are split on whether sincerely-held religious beliefs provide an exemption to anti-discrimination laws. Thirty percent said yes, 46% said no and 24% said they didn't have an opinion.
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