From Reuters:
“Majority
will accept result of U.S. election, even if they dislike the winner:
Reuters/Ipsos poll”
- As the 2020
presidential election enters its final week, a majority of Americans appear ready
to accept the result of an exhausting campaign even if their preferred
candidate loses, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Its latest survey, conducted from
Oct. 13-20, shows that 79% of all Americans, including 59% of those who want to
re-elect President Donald Trump, will accept a win by Democratic challenger Joe
Biden even if they may not support a Biden presidency. Among those Trump
supporters who said they would not accept a Biden victory, 16% said they would
do something to challenge a Democratic win such as protesting in public or
resorting to violence. The poll also found that 73% of Americans, including 57%
of Biden supporters, would similarly accept a Trump victory. Among those who
said they would not accept a Trump win, 22% said they would take action to
challenge the result. U.S. election officials are dealing with a series of
challenges this year that have raised concerns about the public’s confidence in
the result. Top national security officials warned last week that Russia and
Iran have been hacking into U.S. voting systems and looking for ways to
undermine the election. Trump also has repeatedly questioned the integrity of
U.S. elections, arguing that the process is “rigged” against him and repeatedly
asserting without evidence that the surge in mail-in voting this year will
increase the likelihood of voter fraud. He has refused to commit to a peaceful
transfer of power if the vote count indicates he has lost. So far, at least, a
majority of the U.S. public appears ready to accept the result. Donald Green, a
political scientist at Columbia University, said the poll results ease his
concerns about post-election violence. But he warned that if the election is
close, or one candidate can make a credible accusation of voter fraud, it could
spark wider discontent and protests than the poll suggests. “This is why many
people who oppose Trump are holding their breath and hoping for a lopsided
outcome that is not up for grabs,” Green said.
The latest
Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Biden leads Trump by 8 percentage points nationally:
51% of likely voters say they are backing the Democratic challenger while 43%
are voting for the president. Biden also is ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan,
but the race appears to be much closer in other battleground states including
Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was
conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses
from 2,649 American adults, including 1,039 who said they had voted for Trump
or were planning to vote for him, and 1,153 who said they were similarly
backing Biden. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of
4 percentage points.
^ I really hope
that this poll is true. The last thing we need is for post-Election violence
from any side. As it is we won’t know who won on Election Night – and most
Americans need instant gratification and instant results on everything. ^
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