A new Pew Research Center finds that about two-thirds of voters are at least somewhat confident that anyone ineligible to vote will be prevented from casting a ballot. But there is a wide partisan gap in these views. 90% of those who back Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives in this year’s elections are confident that if noncitizens try to vote they will be stopped. A far smaller share of Republican candidate backers – 45% – are confident that noncitizens will be prevented from casting ballots.

The partisan gap is reversed – and not as wide – when it comes to confidence that all legally qualified voters who want to vote can do so. 90% of Republican voters are at least somewhat confident in this. A narrower majority of Democratic voters (72%) express confidence that all qualified voters will be able to vote if they want to.

The survey finds broad bipartisan confidence that votes cast in person will be counted as voters intend. In contrast, there is considerably less public confidence that absentee and mail-in ballots will be counted as intended.

Survey Methodology

We surveyed 5,062 U.S. adults, including 3,917 registered voters, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, 2026. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey represents the views of the full U.S. adult population.

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.