ATLANTA — Georgia voters are increasingly confident that the 2024 presidential election will be conducted fairly and accurately, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey shows.

Nearly two-thirds of likely general election voters surveyed said they are very confident or somewhat confident the election will be fair and accurate. But the survey shows a big partisan gap: Large majorities of Democratic and independent voters believe the election will be fair and accurate, but less than half of Republicans expressed such confidence.

The partisan divide on election confidence has persisted since then-President Donald Trump made numerous false voting fraud allegations as he sought to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

State and federal investigators found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election, and Biden’s victory was confirmed by two recounts. Trump now faces criminal charges in Georgia and Washington, D.C., for his efforts to try to overturn a valid election.

But Trump has continued to claim the 2020 election was stolen, and he repeatedly has suggested Democrats are preparing to steal this year’s election as well.

The AJC survey found that just 45% of Republicans are very confident or somewhat confident the election will be fairly and accurately conducted.

Mark Pallotta of Buford, who plans to vote for Trump, worries about illegal votes being cast.

“Yeah, I believe (my vote) will be counted,” he said. “What worries me is how many other ones they are going to count that aren’t real.”

The latest survey found about 84% of Democrats are very or somewhat confident the election will be fair and accurate, while 67% of independents are confident.

DeKalb County resident Anne McNally plans to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris. She worries that the Republican-controlled State Election Board and other Georgia Republicans will do Trump’s bidding in a close race. But she’s optimistic the election will be conducted properly.

“I know the machines work,” McNally said. “I do trust the people. The workers and the poll workers are great.”

Confidence in the election appears to be on the rise. An AJC survey in June found 57% of likely Georgia voters were confident the election would be fair and accurate; in the latest survey, about 64% of likely voters were confident.

The latest survey also offered insights on how voters plan to cast their ballots. About 58% of respondents said they planned to vote early in-person, while 33% planed to vote at a precinct on Election Day and 5% planned to vote absentee by mail.

There was a modest partisan split in planned voting methods.

About 62% of Democrats planned to vote early in-person, compared to 58% of Republicans and 53% of independents. Republicans (38%) and independents (40%) were more likely than Democrats (23%) to say they planned to vote on Election Day. Democrats were more likely to say they planned to vote absentee (8%) than Republicans and independents (4% each).

The survey of 1,000 likely Georgia voters was conducted Sept. 9-15 by the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs.

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(Staff writer Michelle Baruchman contributed to this report.)

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