The Second Reading Podcast: The Alarming Erosion of Texans' Trust in Voting and Elections

Jim Henson and Josh Blank look at results from the recently released University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll that illustrate starkly different yet widespread concerns about problems with voting and elections, and a serious lack of trust in the outcome of the presidential election. See below the podcast link for graphics of some of the data they reference in the conversation.

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categoryTotal
Misinformation spread on social media62%
Votes being counted inaccurately43%
People voting who are not eligible40%
Eligible voters prevented from voting40%
Foreign governments election interference39%
People voting multiple times38%
An increase in people voting by mail33%
People not voting due to COVID32%

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CategoryDemocratIndependentRepublican
Misinformation spread on social media65%51%61%
Votes being counted inaccurately30%43%53%
People voting who are not eligible17%36%60%
Eligible voters prevented from voting56%45%25%
Foreign governments election interference57%34%25%
People voting multiple times18%34%55%
An increase in people voting by mail13%31%49%
People not voting due to COVID48%32%18%

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categoryTotal
Yes41%
No14%
Don't know/Unsure46%

For a first take overview of Texans' attitudes toward elections and voting, see this recent blog post by Henson and Blank.

About the Second Reading podcast. The podcast is produced by the Texas Politics Project, with production support from UT's Liberal Arts Development Studio, since 2016. It was initially distributed as an instructional component for a course in Texas government and politics offered by the government department at UT Austin during summer semesters. These shows were generally hosted by Jim Henson, who designed the UT course, and usually featured Josh Blank, with intermittent in-studio guests. The podcast as graduated from instructional use and is now publicly available via major podcast channels. You can find past episodes and subscribe to the Second Reading podcast in Apple PodcastsSpotify,  and Stitcher.

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Keywords: 2020 election