11/02/2023

The Republican incumbent has bemoaned the prospect of a long wait for the outcome to be determined, calling it a “terrible thing.”

While President Donald Trump has bemoaned the election result potentially being delayed due to late-arriving mail-in ballots, polling suggests most voters are willing to wait to ensure all such votes are counted.
Trump said he thought the prospect of a longer wait on the outcome was a “terrible thing,” as he criticized court decisions to allow late-arriving ballots in certain states to be counted.
“And I think it’s a very dangerous decision because you’re going to have one or two or three states, depending on how it ends up, where they’re tabulating ballots, and the rest of the world is waiting to find out,” he said.
“And I think there’s great danger to it, and I think a lot of fraud and misuse could take place.”
As well as this, Trump suggested he could look to legal action to combat late votes being counted, having previously suggested the election “should end” on November 3.
Despite this criticism from Trump, Yahoo News!/YouGov polling of 1,501 registered voters found the majority leaned towards all mail-in ballots being counted even if it delays the process.
Nearly three-quarters of those asked, 71 percent, said “waiting for mail-in ballots to be counted so we are sure which candidate won, even if the process drags on for some time” was more important than “determining the outcome of the election quickly, even if many mail-in ballots have not been counted.”
Nate Silver Explains How Donald Trump Can Win Election
Among those supporting Biden, 95 percent said counting all the votes even if it causes delay was more important. For Trump supporters, 43 percent said they felt that way compared, to 53 percent who felt determining the outcome quickly even if mail-in ballots have not been counted was more important.
With the majority stating they want all mail-in ballots counted, most also said they worry there will be legitimate ones that aren’t tabulated.
Among all respondents, 42 percent were very worried that this could be the case and 27 percent said they were somewhat worried.
Overall, voters were also more concerned valid mail-in ballots would not be counted than fraudulent ones would.
On Election Day, Trump’s Approval Rating Is Lower Than Jimmy Carter’s
Just more than half, 52 percent, said they were more concerned about valid ballots being missed, compared to 34 percent who saw fraudulent ballots potentially be counted as a potential concern.
However, there was a clear partisan split on this point. The majority of Joe Biden supporters, 83 percent, saw the issue of valid ballots not being counted as a concern over fraudulent ones going through. Some 69 percent of Trump supporters polled felt the opposite.
It comes with more than 63 million mail-in ballots having been cast pre-election day, with around 100 million early votes cast overall. As of November 2, there were also millions of mail-in ballots still outstanding. Amid the high levels of early voting, several states have already surpassed their 2016 vote totals prior to Election Day.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for comment on the polling.