Washington – Democratic voters have generally positive feelings about their main White House candidates, but have barely moderate confidence in the justice of the party nomination process, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals.
US voters across the political spectrum don’t have much confidence in the two party systems to select a candidate, but Democrats especially have more doubts about their party’s system.
Among Democratic voters, 41% say they have great or a lot of confidence in the party nomination process, while 34% have moderate confidence and 25% have little or no confidence.
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Among Republicans, meanwhile, 61% say they have a lot of confidence in the process of their party and only 13% have little confidence. President Donald Trump has minimal opposition in the process and the Republican Party in several states has canceled the completion of primaries.
For the Democrats, the results reveal the initial effects of what is announced as contentious primaries and attention to the prospects that the nominee will be selected in a difficult internal vote during an already negotiated national convention.
The anxieties have been exacerbated by problems with the vote count in Iowa, a result that Nevada officials work to avoid in their voting on Saturday.
Some respondents said they are concerned that the growing internal disputes over the Democratic nomination weaken who emerges to face Trump in the November elections. The poll was conducted before the Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday, the most contentious so far.
Others expressed concern that Democrats have held on to the tradition of giving Iowa the first event on the nomination calendar. Since 1972, the winner of partisan assemblies in Iowa has won the nomination in seven of 10 disputed contests, but only Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008 won the presidency.
