Republican Trust in Electoral Process Craters by 50% After Trump Loses and Starts Spreading Voter Fraud Conspiracies

Photo credit: Bryan R. Smith, AFP via Getty Images.

Republican trust in the electoral process cratered by 50% in the past two weeks, right after President Donald Trump lost his re-election bid.

Per a Morning Consult tracking poll, 68% of Republicans reported that they had “a lot” or “some” faith in the nation’s elections just a week before Election Day. That figure was almost identical to the 66% of Democrats who said the same and bit more than the 58% of Independents who agreed.

But when Morning Consult asked the same question now, the number of Republicans answering the same way had fallen by half. This comes after nearly a week of Trump and his surrogates sowing unfounded seeds of doubt and pushing rampant conspiracy theories about fraud after President-Elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the as hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes were counted in the days after Election Day.

Credit: Morning Consult

Likewise, despite the lack of evidence of widespread voting irregularities, a strong majority of Republicans — seven out of 10 – now say that the 2020 election was “definitely” or “probably” not “free and fair.” That mark was twice as high as it was right before the election.

In addition, those who doubt the election results seem to have been swayed by Trump’s baseless, months-long pre-emptive attacks on mail-in voting as ripe for fraud.

Nearly 4 in 5 voters who say they don’t believe the election was free and fair cite widespread voter fraud caused by mail-in voting as a reason why. Additionally, 72 percent cite ballot tampering as a reason and 51 percent say the media gave the candidates unequal attention.

However, the widespread doubts about the election from Republicans hasn’t convinced all registered voters that any evidence of irregularities uncovered could change the outcome. A full 63% of voters don’t expect the results to be overturned, including three in four Democrats and nearly half — 45% — of Republicans.