Despite certifying the outcome of last week’s presidential election in Congress, an overwhelming majority of Republicans still do not trust the outcome – and nearly half do not think elected President Joe Biden should be inaugurated, according to a new poll by Vox and Data for Progress.
In a poll that took place in the days after a group of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol (January 8 to 11), 72 percent of likely Republican voters said they still questioned the outcome of the presidential election. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, or 74 percent, said voter fraud allegations contributed to these concerns. These are overwhelming majorities, but even among independents, 42 percent said they do not currently trust the election results.
The GOP is more divided over the presidential transition, with 49 percent of Republicans saying they doubt the election result and opposing Biden’s inauguration, 29 percent saying they still doubt the outcome, but believe Biden inaugurated should be, and 16 percent that they trust the election results and think Biden should be inaugurated. A total of 1,233 voters were polled for the poll, which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
More generally, Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud seem to have an effect on the way people view the electoral system in general – not just the 2020 presidential race. While 55 percent of people said they still trust the election process in the United States, 39 percent of people said they did not trust it, including 65 percent of Republicans, compared to 12 percent of Democrats.
These findings are similar to those in other recent polls: A Quinnipiac poll conducted Monday also found that 73 percent of Republicans believe there is widespread voter fraud, compared to 5 percent of Democrats who felt the same way.
These results indicate that the allegations raised by Trump and his Republican allies resonated with a large majority of the Republican base, so much so that some still remain opposed to the presidential transition because of the doubts they have about the election results. This Vox / DFP poll finds that this sharp gap in perceptions about the outcome of the election also shows how people interpreted the Capitol storm last week. Such rifts could have significant implications for the way Republican lawmakers approach policies under the incoming Biden government, especially if many of their base are wary of the legitimacy of his presidency.
Reactions to the storms of the Capitol fell heavily along party lines
People’s perceptions about the attack on the Capitol last week also differ significantly based on their party affiliation. 81 percent of Democrats view the riot – which took place while Congress ratified the presidential election – as a threat to democracy, while 64 percent of independents and 47 percent of Republicans felt the same way.
Democrats were also much more likely to say that President Donald Trump and congressional lawmakers were to blame for inciting the violence that took place at the Capitol, while Republicans were more likely to blame Democrats in Congress, President-elect Biden, and to blame anti-fascist protesters. , of antifa. As reported by Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas, some conservative lawmakers began falsely accusing the violence on antifa shortly after the attacks took place last week, a statement that apparently caught some members of the party.
Overall, 63 percent of people blame Trump for inciting violence, including 90 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans, and 51 percent of people blame Republican lawmakers, including 78 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of the Republicans. Meanwhile, 37 percent of people blame Democratic lawmakers, including 11 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans, and 30 percent blame Biden, including 9 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans. Forty-seven percent of the people blame antifa, including 29 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans.
Opinions about how lawmakers should respond to the attack fall largely along party lines. Fifty-two percent of all people think the 25th Amendment should be called and Vice President Mike Pence should force Trump to resign, while 51 percent of people think Trump should be charged. 85 percent of Democrats return accusations, while 17 percent of Republicans do. The House is ready to vote for the second time this week on Trump’s accusation, which incites him this time of charge of an uprising.
As this poll makes clear, many Republicans still believe the allegations of voter fraud that Trump has been misleading for months, and some even question the Democratic process as a result.