Election Results Fair And Accurate, MN Patch Reader Survey Says

MINNESOTA —A majority of the over 300 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 Wednesday on Patch, is meant not to be a scientific poll but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment.

A majority of the respondents said they either voted early in-person or voted absentee by mail and either mailed in their ballot or dropped it off. Just 20.2 percent of respondents said they voted in-person on Election Day.

SEE ALSO: Patch Survey: Majority Trust The 2020 Election Results

Still, though the majority did drop off their ballots, it apparently wasn't over a lack of confidence in the system. Nearly 58 percent of respondents strongly agreed that voting by mail is safe, reliable and generally free of fraud.

For those who mailed in their ballots, 45.2 percent said they felt more confident about voting by mail and the same percentage of respondents said their confidence level was unchanged.

"I was very satisfied with the mail in absentee ballot process," one respondent said about the process.

"Absentee voting by mail was easy," another respondent said of their experience. "The online tracking system gave me confidence that my vote had been received and would be counted. It only took three days from when I dropped my ballot off in a mailbox to when it was recorded as received. I am impressed by how well our state did organizing the voting process and handling the record number of ballots. Thanks for your excellent work to our MN Secretary of State and to all our election staff and poll workers in every county of our state."

One respondent supported voting early or on Election Day but felt voting by mail should be minimized.

"I believe everyone should be able to vote in person, early or day of election," the person wrote. "I think there is too much at stake to rely on voting by mail. I do understand that may be an issue for elderly and/or sick to vote in person, but it should be minimized as much as possible and ALL ballots should be required due back by day of election...no ifs, ands, or buts. Things are getting totally out of control trying to please everyone!"

One person wrote about their experience voting by mail as a way to limit exposure to the coronavirus.

"This year is the first time I have used the vote by mail option and did so as a way of limiting my exposure to COVID," the person said. "As it turned out, I absolutely loved it. It is easy, convenient and the security with the mail in option seemed as good as...but really, it seemed probably even better than what I have experienced by voting in person. I liked being able to track my ballot and being notified when my vote was actually counted. I have absolutely no idea why even more people are not using it. Although I plan to continue to vote in every election, I do not plan on ever going to a polling place to cast my ballot from this point forward. Vote by mail is a GREAT option."

And another person cast doubt on why they would trust the post office with their ballot:

"First, I do not trust humans to sort/record votes; strong irrational emotions could cause them to make certain votes disappear," they wrote. "Second, if I don’t trust the post office enough to send $500 in cash through their system, why would I entrust it with something as valuable as my vote? Especially since 2-3 times a month I get a neighbor’s mail."

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

This article originally appeared on the Southwest Minneapolis Patch