A vast majority of voters, across the political spectrum, would support Congress taking action to combat election subversion, new polling found.
The survey found strong bipartisan support for legislation to secure ballots, combat voter intimidation and protect election results from partisan interference. The poll, released Tuesday, was conducted by Republican pollster Chris Perkins of Ragnar Research Partners for Secure Democracy and Protect Democracy, a pair of nonpartisan nonprofits focused on election integrity.
Nearly nine in 10 voters indicated they would support unspecified federal legislation requiring states to preserve and secure ballots and other election records, the poll found. An overwhelming majority (84 percent) also backed a national law that ensures every eligible citizen's right to have their ballot counted.
Additionally, the survey found strong bipartisan support for legislation funding election infrastructure (81 percent), establishing uniform ballot storage (80 percent) and allowing partisan poll watchers equal access to ballot monitoring (80 percent).
There was also broad support for potential measures aimed at preventing the intimidation of election workers and protecting the vote-counting process. More than three-quarters of voters would like to see guidelines issued to election administrators on how to respond to and mitigate election intimidation.
And 77 percent would give the Department of Justice authority to send observers to prevent interference during the ballot-counting process. Last week, the Justice Department did take steps to safeguard the electoral process by launching a task force to combat threats against election workers.
"A threat to any election official, worker or volunteer is a threat to democracy," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who will lead the task force. "We will promptly and vigorously prosecute offenders to protect the rights of American voters, to punish those who engage in this criminal behavior, and to send the unmistakable message that such conduct will not be tolerated."
The survey found most voters (78 percent) were also concerned about the increase in threats of violence and intimidation against poll workers. Roughly seven in 10 voters also expressed worry about the ability to recruit election workers due to these threats.
"There is clear bipartisan support for laws that protect election officials and the election results from partisan interference and intimidation," said Perkins, the lead pollster for Ragnar Research Partners. "Americans across the political spectrum support legislation that ensures the results of a free and fair election are upheld and improves the security of our election systems."
"Congress must listen to the American people and take action to prevent further partisan interference in our elections and protect our election officials so that every American can exercise their freedom to vote and have confidence that their vote will count," said Sarah Walker, executive director of Secure Democracy.
Commissioned by Secure Democracy and Protect Democracy, Ragnar Research Partners surveyed 2,000 likely voters — with an even share of self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents — via landlines and cellphones between July 6-13. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.