The Trump campaign’s effort to undermine confidence in the integrity of the presidential election is working among voters who cast their ballot for President Trump but not many others.
Conducted between Sunday and Tuesday, a new poll from the Economist and YouGov revealed that 86% of the people who voted for the president believe Joe Biden did not win the presidential election “legitimately.” Only 14% of the Trump voters included in the poll believe Biden won the election “legitimately.”
Nearly all of the Biden voters surveyed in the poll said they believe he won the presidency “legitimately” — only 1% said the former vice president’s victory was illegitimate.
On Saturday, many mainstream outlets projected Biden to win the presidency. Trump’s campaign has brought up allegations of widespread fraud in many battleground states where Biden is ahead. The president has not yet conceded the election even though Biden has begun acting as president-elect.
The campaign filed legal challenges in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia. All of those states are projected to go to Biden, and the campaign has not challenged the results in any state the president is projected to win. Their allegations have not been substantiated.
The New York Times contacted election officials in every state asking whether they had seen evidence of illegal voting, and not one said they did.
On Wednesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the state will be going to a recount. The president’s campaign asked for a recount, but Trump winning the state of Georgia would not be enough, alone, to change the projected winner of the election as a whole.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll from the last couple of days reinforces the idea that the president and his campaign will have a hard time convincing the American people he won legitimately. Conducted from Saturday to Tuesday, the poll found that 79% of U.S. adults believe Biden won the election, while another 13% believe a winner has not yet been determined. Three percent of respondents said Trump won four more years, and 5% said they don’t know.
