The 2020 election was a contentious one, to say the least. With Donald Trump leading the Republican ticket, it’s no surprise that many Republicans still believe he should be president. How do we know? Well, according to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, “fully two-thirds of Republicans surveyed said they believe the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump.”
View on voter fraud allegations
One in four adults believes the 3 November election was tainted with allegations of presidential voter fraud. Three out of ten Americans and half of Republicans believe the citizen’s vote has been undermined by false or undocumented claims about illegal voting, according to a recent poll.
President Biden won by more than 7 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, but most Republicans still believe that he lost. Dozens of courts have ruled against Trump’s false claims to the contrary—Trump and his supporters have simply ignored these rulings instead of accepting them as legitimate.
The poll found that one-third of the public and more than half of Republicans are concerned about the accuracy of mail-in-voting and absentee ballots in 2020. Nearly a third of the state’s voters cast ballots through the mail in both 2016 and 2018. In both years, more Republicans than Democrats voted by mail. Most Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, but in 2020 more than 2.1 million Democrats statistically sent in mail ballots for their party, compared to 1.4 million registered Republicans largely because of a Democratic push to vote remotely amid the pandemic.
The vast majority of Republican voters believe it is important that the government place new restrictions on voting to reduce fraud and protect elections. Florida Legislature’s new bill includes restricting the use of drop boxes, adding more identification requirements for those requesting absentee ballots, requiring voters to request an absentee ballot for each election rather than receive them automatically through an absentee voting list, and empowering partisan observers during the ballot-counting process. A bill would also ban outside organizations from using items – such as an advertisement or a promotion – to influence voters within close proximity of a voting poll.
The US federal and state officials have said repeatedly they have no evidence that votes were compromised or altered during the presidential election.
Approximately 30% of Republicans believe that Trump should share some blame in his supporters’ 6 January attack at the Capitol, after delivering a fiery speech to an animated audience. The former president has been impeached by the House for inciting insurrection only one year ago when he was accused of treason.
It’s important to note that the majority of Republicans do share the belief that illegal voting occurred in the US Presidential elections in 2020. In fact, 63% of Republicans believe Mr. Trump should run again in 2024. So far, a lot has been said about voter fraud during the 2020 election but it is crucial for us all to be vigilant as we head into another presidential race in 2024. Any new restrictions on voting will need to be carefully considered or they risk alienating voters from both sides of the aisle when they go out to vote next year.
