According to Morning Consult tracking, voters – including Republicans – doubt the results of the U.S. Presidential election will be overturned or should be. Sixty-three percent of all voters say the 2020 election was free and fair. That said, 68% of Republicans say it was not. Despite that sentiment, the number of Republicans who believe the election results can be overturned has dwindled even before Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol or the vote by Congress to accept the Electoral College results from the state. Only 27% of Republicans believe the election will be overturned, down 15 points from early December, when 41% of Republicans believed the results would be changed. Only 20% of all voters say the election will still be overturned. That number is likely to drop since Wednesday.
Before Nov., 66% of Republicans said they had some trust in U.S. elections. By the end of December, that plummeted to 30% while Democrats’ trust in elections bounced from 63% to 80%. A large part of the distrust was fueled by mail-in voting. Of those who do not believe the election was free and fair, 75% blame mail-in vote, including 83% of Republicans.
How do campaigns restore confidence moving forward? Many states, especially Pennsylvania and Georgia, were not equipped or prepared for the surge of mail-in votes. While the election was not rigged or stolen, it will fall on state and local governments to streamline the process and on campaigns and parties to act in ways that help remove concern or doubt.
