A majority of voters in battleground states do not believe Donald Trump will accept defeat if he loses in next week’s presidential election, according to the latest poll, and his supporters are confident that he will remain in power. They are concerned that they may turn to violence in an attempt to force them to work.
The survey, conducted by George Mason University and the Washington Post, found that far fewer voters have similar concerns about Kamala Harris.
The findings highlight the growing tensions ahead of next Tuesday’s elections. The campaign featured two assassination attempts on former president and Republican nominee Trump, who tempered his rhetoric by labeling domestic adversaries as “enemies from within” and threatening to seek retaliation. I raised it.
Democratic candidate Harris has increasingly portrayed the contest as being about democracy itself, even as others, including Trump’s former White House chief of staff John Kelly, have criticized her opponent. He publicly agrees with being called a fascist.
As campaigning intensifies, more than 5,000 voters were targeted in the first two weeks of October in battleground states widely seen as key to winning the election: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. participated in the vote.
About 57% said they were very or somewhat concerned that Trump’s supporters would resort to violence if he lost. Two-thirds believe they will not accept the result even if Harris wins.
By contrast, only 31% of voters were worried about violence if Harris won, and two in three voters were confident that Harris would accept defeat.
The numbers reflect the candidates’ contrasting public positions on the electoral process. While Harris has said she is confident, Trump has stoked unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and suggested he could only lose if there was fraud.
He was also deliberately vague when asked whether he would accept the results, saying he would if the polls were “free and fair.”
His stance is not a repeat of his refusal to accept his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, his attempts to block Congress from certifying the results, and his inciting a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. This is fueling concerns that there may be
In a somewhat contradictory finding, the poll found that Trump beat Harris 43% to 40% when it came to which candidate was more trusted to protect democracy.
Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, said that particular result was “mind-boggling.”
“Think about what happened on January 6th,” he told The Washington Post. “As Trump refused to accept the results of the presidential election, the outgoing president refused to participate in the inauguration of the next president. There was no majority.”
45% of voters in battleground states believe Trump will try to govern as a dictator (compared to 19% for Harris), but a majority of 81% (including 73% of Harris supporters) expressed optimism that either Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court would block it. Because this happens.
Trump previously said he would only act as a dictator “on day one,” but the Supreme Court (6-3, thanks to Trump appointing three very conservative justices during his presidency) In June, the president issued the following ruling: Broad immunity from prosecution for criminal acts committed in the line of duty.
Constitutional scholars and historians told the Guardian that President Trump this week “deported” special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has sworn an oath to pursue his enemies, including requests to do so, and has also been threatened. Using the military against domestic adversaries represents a departure from democratic norms and the rule of law.
Rozell called the overall findings “disheartening.”
“The fact is that we have lost so much in a very short period of time, that we cannot expect people to accept the legitimacy of the election results, and that a peaceful transfer of power is automatic here. “That’s telling,” he said.
