A new survey from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University offers a revealing snapshot of how Texans think about voter fraud and the tradeoffs between securing elections and expanding access to the ballot.
The poll, which surveyed 1,706 registered Texas voters between April 22 and May 6, 2026, with a margin of error of 2.37%, found that the views on these issues are shaped almost entirely by partisanship. It showed that the state is evenly divided between prioritizing election integrity and ballot access.
Michael O. Adams, a political science professor at Texas Southern University, argues that while the split is striking, the demographic breakdowns carry more weight, particularly among Black and Latino Texans.
“These are the same communities, I believe, for whom the right to vote was guaranteed on paper long before it was protected in practice,” Adams said.
How big a problem is voter fraud?
When asked how much voter fraud occurs in U.S. elections, Texans gave a mixed verdict.
About 24% said they believe there is “a great deal” of fraud, 35% said “some,” 30% said “very little,” and 11% said “none”.
The overall split, however, masks a stark partisan chasm.
More than eight out of 10 Texas Republicans believe there is either a “great deal” or “some” voter fraud, compared with 30% of Democrats who hold the same view.
Conversely, seven out of 10 Democrats say fraud is very rare or doesn’t happen at all, compared with 17% of Republicans.
Few other demographic factors, such as race, gender, generation, education, or geography, produced gaps nearly as wide, underscoring how perceptions of election fraud have become partisan rather than a demographic phenomenon.
An even split
The survey’s central question asked voters to choose between two competing values: Doing “everything possible to stop voter fraud and illegal immigrants from voting” versus ensuring that “eligible citizens are not denied the ability to vote.” The result was a precise 50-50 tie statewide.
Moreover, 80% of Republicans prioritize election integrity, while 88% of Democrats prioritize ballot access. Independents land between the two.
Racial and generational patterns echo this divide in revealing ways.
White voters favor election integrity by 58 to 42%, while Black voters favor ballot access by 72 to 28%, the widest gap of any subgroup in the survey.
“Our poll said no other group in the survey leans that far in any direction,” Adams said. “For a community whose right to vote was promised on paper generations before it was protected in practice, the priority is unmistakable…Make sure no eligible citizen is denied the right to vote. And that has been the historical theme of Black political life in the United States and also in Texas.”
Latino voters also lean toward ballot access, though by a narrower 55 to 45% margin.
Generationally, the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers favor election integrity, while Gen Z strongly favors ballot access, with Gen X and Millennials roughly split.
Meanwhile, voters with a four-year degree or higher favor ballot access, while those with lower levels of education are more evenly divided.
Geography tells a similar story. Rural and semi-rural voters favor election integrity, while voters in urban, suburban, and regional-hub counties are more evenly split.
“Beneath that 50-50 headline lie striking differences by party, race, age, education, and geography. Republicans favor election integrity over ballot access by a four-to-one margin, while Democrats flip that ratio in the opposite direction. Black voters prioritize ballot access at more than twice the rate they prioritize election integrity, while rural voters lean heavily toward fraud prevention.”
Michael O. Adams and Mark P. Jones, co-authors of the report from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University
Belief drives priority at times
The extent of fraud a voter believes exists strongly predicts which principle they prioritize.
Among those who think there is a great deal of fraud, 79% prioritize election integrity, and among those who see “some” fraud, that figure is 64%.
Conversely, among voters who believe fraud is very rare or nonexistent, roughly 80% prioritize ballot access.
About one in five voters who believe fraud is rampant still prioritize ballot access over tougher anti-fraud measures, and one in five voters who prioritize election integrity say they believe there is no voter fraud at all.
