Many remain critical of state of U.S. democracy: poll

NEW YORK, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy and the way elected officials are chosen, nearly two years after a divisive presidential election spurred false claims of widespread fraud and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, reported The Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday.

Only about half of Americans have high confidence that votes in the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately, according to a new poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, though that's an improvement from about 4 in 10 saying that just before the 2020 presidential election.

Just 9 percent of U.S. adults think democracy is working "extremely" or "very well," while 52 percent say it's not working well, according to the report.

"In a reversal from two years ago, Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to say democracy is not working well. This year, 68 percent of Republicans feel this way compared with 32 percent two years ago," it said.

The share of Democrats with a sour outlook on how democracy is functioning in the United States dropped from 63 percent to 40 percent, it added.