Most Americans Think The Nominating Process Was Fair

Bernie Sanders and his supporters have been complaining for months now that the Democratic Party's nominating process was not fair -- that it favored his opponent. But most Democrats disagree with that. About 59% say the process was fair, while only 38% say it wasn't. Both candidates knew the rules before they declared their candidacy, and neither candidate was favored by the party's officials or its rules.

While the Republicans have different nominating rules (with some state being winner-take-all, while all states were proportional for the Democrats), Republicans also believe their process was fair -- and by the same margins (59% to 38%).

But while Democrats believe the process was fair, a substantial majority likes the idea of open primaries/caucuses (where anyone can vote in the party's elections). About 63% favor open primaries/caucuses, while only 35% would like them closed (where only party members could vote).

The Republicans also like the idea of open primaries/caucuses, but by a much smaller margin (52% to 47%).

These charts were made from the results of a new NBC News Poll -- done between May 30th and June 5th of random national samples of 3,168 registered Democratic voters and 2,544 registered Republican voters. The margin of error for Democrats was 2.3 points, and for Republicans was 2.7 points.