(NewsNation) — The state of Arizona shocked the political world when it was called for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Now, the once reliably red state finds itself solidly in the toss-up category.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters is hoping his supporters will now be more motivated to come out in 2022.
“People are pissed about the 2020 election. I say take that frustration, take that anger, channel it, show up to the polls, go shake five people awake, get them to the polls,” Masters said.
But false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election are still lingering over the Grand Canyon State. Some have taken matters into their own hands.
Last month, two armed people were discovered outside a drop box in Maricopa County — the state’s largest county and home to Phoenix. A temporary restraining order was granted Tuesday to stop members of the organization allegedly responsible from coming close to the drop boxes.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone has reported that former President Donald Trump is preparing to challenge election results in Pennsylvania and other states if the midterms do not go his and the GOP’s way.
Despite that, in an exclusive NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll, nearly 80 percent of those surveyed say they have a “fair amount” or “great deal” of trust in the accuracy of the results of the upcoming midterm elections. Just 16 percent of respondents said they don’t have very much trust and 5 percent said they have “none at all.”
Republicans and independents were significantly more likely than Democrats to say they didn’t have much trust. When asked how secure they believe mail-in voting to be, 39 percent said very secure, 30 percent said somewhat secure, but a combined 31 percent said not very secure or not at all secure.
When asked what percentage of mail-in ballots they believe are fraudulent, a majority said less than 5 percent. The rest of those surveyed believe it’s higher than that, with a quarter of respondents saying they believe more than one in 10 mail-in ballots are fraudulent.
Both Republicans and Democrats surveyed greatly overestimated the number of fraudulent mail-in ballots turned in during a typical election cycle. A 2020 Associated Press investigation found fewer than 475 potential cases out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the states of Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.