A new poll focusing on Republican voters’ attitudes on the 2020 election shows that more than two-thirds of respondents do not accept the result of the presidential race as legitimate.
R Street Institute, a policy organization which promotes “free markets and limited, effective government,” found that 67 percent of Republicans believe the election was invalid, with only 23 percent accepting it as legitimate.
A significant number of those polled, 42 percent, believe that their vote was “probably” not counted.
There has been no evidence to support the claim that voter or election fraud played a role in the 2020 election. Scores of legal challenges to the outcome of the presidential race, which saw President Joe Biden defeat former President Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes nationally, have failed.
The R Street poll also demonstrated that Republicans were opposed to a number of election reforms that would make the voting process easier, including 82 percent who said they did not support “no excuse” vote-by-mail measures and 66 percent who said they disliked same-day voter registration. However, 57 percent of respondents supported the idea of independent redistricting commissions for their home state’s decennial redistricting process.
Misleading statements and lies about election fraud played a major role in fueling the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. Unfortunately, the current slate of speakers at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this weekend indicates that such talk is likely to remain part of the Republican Party’s discourse for some time.
Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., are planning to make appearances at CPAC. There will also be at least seven different panels and addresses that feature speakers who will promote the lie that fraud in elections is occurring with increasing regularity.
Titles of these sessions include, “Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence,” referencing the failure of Trump and allies to get judges to rule in their favor to help them overturn the election. Another session, “Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!),” will criticize states Trump loyalists wrongly believe committed fraud.
Other scheduled speakers include Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama), an ardent Trump supporter who has peddled false charges of fraud, as well as Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was on a January 2 phone call with Trump when he asked a state official in Georgia to “find” him enough votes to win the race against Biden there.
Trump will speak at CPAC on Sunday and is expected to position himself as both head of the Republican Party as well as presumptive party nominee for the 2024 election.
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