Election Results Fair And Accurate, CA Patch Reader Survey Says

CALIFORNIA — Most of the nearly 2,000 people who responded to Patch's non-scientific voting survey this week said they believe both state and national election results are fair and accurate, but readers had strong opinions whether they agreed or not.

The survey, which appeared in questionnaire form Tuesday on Patch, is meant not to be a scientific poll but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment.

While all California voters were issued a mail-in ballot, most — or more than 57 percent— of the more than 1,796 who responded said they did not return it via the USPS. Rather, they dropped their ballots off at a vote center or other drop-off location.

Just 4.5 percent of those who took our survey voted in person on Election Day.

Still, though the majority did drop off their ballots, it apparently wasn't over a lack of confidence in the system. More than 54 percent of respondents "strongly agreed" that "voting by mail is safe, reliable and generally free of fraud."

"I work full-time plus and truly appreciate the ability to take my time at home on a weekend preparing my ballot and mailing it in," one respondent said of their thoughts of the system. "Voting participation could be greatly hampered by not allowing mail in or drop-off voting, particularly this year with the pandemic."

Still, plenty of people noted that they did not trust the system overall.

"There has been rampant voter fraud in this and in past elections," another respondent said. "There should be a task force to arrest, convict and put in prison all whom participated in voter fraud."

Another person noted that they received ballots from both California and another state, after having moved.

Take a look at some of the other results of our survey below: