Both Republicans and Democrats believe midterm election fraud will help their opponents

Americans on both sides of the aisle are worried about meddling in the midterm elections, a new NPR/Marist poll finds, and they're convinced it won't help their party.

Asked which party potential voter fraud would favor in the midterms, 77 percent of Democrats said it would help Republicans, and 67 percent of Republicans said it would favor Democrats. Independents were split, but slightly more (41 to 36 percent, with a 4 percent margin of error throughout the survey) believe the GOP would benefit.

Party affiliation also corresponded with disagreement on what sort of meddling is likely to happen. A majority of Democrats are suspicious of foreign interference from Russia or another country, while Republicans are overwhelmingly concerned with a more domestic threat: voter suppression or illicit voting, especially by immigrants who are not U.S. citizens.

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As NPR notes, there's no evidence of foreign manipulation of U.S. ballots (Russian election interference techniques were more indirect). And many of the very few improper votes that are cast each election are accidental, like the Texas woman sentenced to five years in prison for unintentionally violating the law by voting while on probation.

The survey also found a significant split on whether "many votes" will simply not be counted. While most white voters aren't concerned this may happen, a majority of non-white voters think it will.

All told, nearly 4 in 10 Americans say our elections are not fair. The poll was conducted Sept. 5-9 and reached 949 adults over the phone. See the full results here.