October 11, 2024: Forty-five percent (45%) of voters are able to give an accurate description of the Electoral College in response to an open-ended question. A Napolitan News Service national survey conducted by RMG Research found that an additional 30% say they know what it is but give an inaccurate definition. Twenty-five percent (25%) admit they do not know.
The survey also found that 59% either strongly favor (34%) or somewhat favor (25%) a proposal to replace the Electoral College with a direct popular vote. When told that doing so could lead to many candidates running for president and splitting the vote so that someone could be elected with just 30% of the vote, that support drops to 45%.
Methodology
The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on October 2-3, 2024. Fieldwork for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of registered voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points.
Scott Rasmussen is the president of RMG Research, Inc.
[Among all voters] In just a few words, please tell me what the Electoral College is.
- 25%-Not asked, do not know
- 45%-Correct
- 22%-Partially correct
- 7%-Incorrect
- 1%-Not sure
A proposal has been made to change the Constitution and replace the Electoral College with a direct popular vote. Would you favor or oppose this proposal?
- 34%-Strongly favor
- 25%-Somewhat favor
- 13%-Somewhat oppose
- 17%-Strongly oppose
- 11%-Not sure
If the Electoral College was replaced with a direct popular vote, that could lead to many candidates running for president and splitting the vote. It's possible that someone could be elected president after receiving only 25% or 30% of the vote. If that was a possible outcome, would you favor or oppose changing the Constitution and replacing the Electoral College with a direct popular vote?
- 20%-Strongly favor
- 25%-Somewhat favor
- 17%-Somewhat oppose
- 24%-Strongly oppose
- 14%-Not sure
Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is a political analyst, author, public speaker, independent public opinion pollster and a columnist. Read Scott Rasmussen's Reports — More Here.