Almost all Americans believe that democracy in the United States is being tested at the very least: 93% in total say that democracy is being attacked (56%) or that it is being tried but not attacked (37%). A scant 6% say American democracy is not in danger.
And Republicans who support Trump continue to believe the big lie that was stolen from him in the 2020 election. While there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, 36% of Americans say the president Joe Biden did not legitimately get enough votes to win the presidency. That 36% includes 23% who falsely say there is solid evidence that Biden did not win and 13% who say it is just their suspicion.
Among Republicans, 78% say Biden did not win and 54% believe there is solid evidence, although no such evidence exists. This view is also deeply related to support for Trump. Among Republicans who say Trump should be the party leader, 88% believe Biden lost, including 64%, who say there is solid evidence that he did not win, while among Republicans who do not want that Trump leading the party, 57% say Biden won legitimately.
Looking ahead to the next election, 51% of all Americans say it is at least somewhat likely that next year’s election will cancel the election because their parties have lost, while 49% say it is unlikely. .
Opinions on this perspective are more tied to perceptions of the threat facing American democracy than to partisanship. Those who say democracy in the United States is under attack are more likely to believe that elections are likely to be canceled for partisan reasons (58%), while most who do not see democracy as under attack say it is unlikely. probable (58%). Among Republicans, 57% say elections are very or somewhat likely to be canceled, while 48% of independents and 49% of Democrats feel the same way.
However, Democrats and independents are causing a drop in confidence that the U.S. election reflects the will of the people. A narrow majority overall, 52%, now say they don’t have that confidence, up from 40% who felt that way in January. Among Democrats, confidence has dropped from 90% in January to 69% today and among independents it has fallen from 54% to 46% at the time, while Republican confidence has remained virtually uniform and is now stands at 24%.
This change comes after a series of major changes to statewide voting rules and regulations. Republican officials in some states have tightened voting rules, while some Democratic-controlled states have taken steps to enforce looser rules to address the coronavirus pandemic on a permanent basis. Less than half see the movements of each band as pure, according to the survey.
Most see controlled parties making these changes to their advantage. About 6 in 10 (58%) say changes were made to voting laws in Republican-controlled states to help the ruling party instead of making the elections fairer, while 53% say the same about these changes in democratic control states. Combining the two results, about a quarter of the total say both parties are acting in their own interest (25%) and only 12% say both parties are acting to make the elections fairer. About a third say one party wants the election to be fairer, while the other stays in control (33% say Democrats make the election fairer and Republicans act to help their party, 29% states that Republicans are holding more elections) just as Democrats try to hold control).
Democrats and Republicans in the poll are on opposite sides of whether the biggest problem with voting rules in U.S. elections is that they make it too difficult to vote or that they are not strict enough to prevent illegal votes. · Legal. Among Republicans, 83% say the problem is that the rules are not strict enough, while 66% of Democrats say it is too difficult to vote.
The new CNN survey was conducted by SSRS from August 3 to September 7 among a random national sample of 2,119 adults who were initially reached by mail. Interviews were conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The results of the complete sample have a margin of sampling error of more or less 2.8 percentage points.