Election System & Voting Process

Overall, 70% of U.S. adults favor allowing any voter to vote by mail if they want to.

Nearly seven-in-ten registered voters say postponing state primary elections has been a necessary step to address the coronavirus outbreak.

40% of U.S. adults prefer to keep the current system in which the candidate who receives the most Electoral College vote wins the election.

Americans who closely follow political news are more likely to have confidence that the public will accept election results. And that's true across party boundaries.

After months of campaigning, debating, polling and fundraising, Democratic presidential candidates face their first real-world test Feb. 3.

Voters approached the 2018 midterm elections with some trepidation about the voting process and many had concerns that U.S. election systems may be hacked. After the election, however, most say it was “very easy” to vote and confidence in election security has increased.

Many Americans support the idea of several election policies, including same-day and automatic voter registration. This election, voters in many states weighed in on specific ballot measures.

Many of the millions of Americans voting in Tuesday's midterm elections will have to do so while working around the demands of their jobs – hitting their polling places before work, taking an extra-long lunch break or going afterward and hoping to make it before the polls close. As they stand in line, many of them may wonder why it is that the United States votes on a Tuesday, of all days.

Voters are more enthusiastic about voting than in any midterm election in over 20 years of Pew Research Center polling. Still, millions of Americans will not exercise their right to vote on Tuesday.