Americans across party lines are dissatisfied with the way both major political parties choose their presidential candidates, a new poll shows.
According to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, nearly 40 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party’s nominating process is unfair, while 44 percent said the same of the Republican Party’s.
Only 17 percent of Republican respondents described themselves as “confident” in the way their party chooses its presidential nominee, compared to 31 percent of Democrats who approved of their party’s process.
The survey follows months of complaints leveled at Democratic and Republican party officials by candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Trump has since clinched the necessary delegates to secure the GOP nomination, while Sanders continues to trail opponent Hillary Clinton in both pledged delegates and superdelegates despite the unrivaled level of enthusiasm surrounding his campaign.
“It’s kind of like a rigged election. It’s supposed to be one man, one vote,” Nayef Jaber, a California resident backing Sanders, told the AP.
The same poll found that 53 percent of Americans think Democratic superdelegates — unelected delegates who can choose to support whichever candidate at the party’s upcoming convention in Philadelphia — are a negative part of the Democratic Party’s nominating process, including 46 percent of self-avowed Democrats.
Seventeen percent of voters said superdelegates improve the nominating process, including 25 percent of Democrats.
Clinton currently leads Sanders by 268 pledged delegates and nearly 500 superdelegates. The Vermont senator’s campaign has been making a play for superdelegates recently, arguing that Sanders performs better in matchup polls against Trump and doesn’t carry baggage like Clinton.
The AP-NORC survey of 1,060 American adults was conducted May 12-15. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
