By LINLEY SANDERS and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Republicans say they’re assured within the 2024 vote rely after Donald Trump’s win, based on a brand new ballot that finds a pointy turnaround from GOP voters’ skepticism about U.S. elections after the president-elect spent 4 years mendacity about his loss to President Joe Biden.
About 6 in 10 Republicans stated they’ve “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that the votes in final yr’s presidential election have been counted accurately nationwide, based on the ballot from The Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis. That’s a pointy rise from about 2 in 10 Republicans who have been assured in an AP-NORC ballot in October. And about two-thirds of Republicans within the new survey stated they have been assured of their state’s vote rely, up from about 4 in 10 earlier than the election.
That helped drive up the share of People saying they’ve “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence within the accuracy of the election to about 6 in 10. That’s larger than in October, when roughly half of People stated they have been extremely assured the votes can be counted precisely.
The temper is considerably completely different than it was 4 years in the past, when Trump’s supporters, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their means into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to interrupt the certification of Biden’s victory. Weeks later, an AP-NORC ballot discovered that about two-thirds of Republicans stated Biden was not legitimately elected president.
That perception endured all through Biden’s presidency and till final yr’s election, as Trump continued to sow doubt in regards to the accuracy of U.S. elections. He even did so on Election Day within the hours earlier than it was clear he would win.
However since Trump’s victory in November, Republicans’ suspicions about election safety in any respect ranges — together with confidence in their very own native election officers — have ebbed considerably.
There have been no indications of bother earlier than the election regardless of Trump’s makes an attempt to put the groundwork to problem the accuracy of the rely if he misplaced the vote. Nor have been there any actual questions over the integrity of the 2020 rely, which was confirmed by a variety of state audits,recounts and opinions, a few of which have been led by Republicans, together with Trump’s personal Division of Justice.
Threats towards native election officers soared after 2020, resulting in a wave of veteran directors leaving workplace. In a possible signal that these hostilities would possibly ease, the ballot discovered that about 7 in 10 People have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that votes within the 2024 presidential election have been counted precisely by their native election officers, up from about 6 in 10 in October.
That motion was virtually totally pushed by Republicans: About 7 in 10 have been extremely assured in native officers’ counts in December, in contrast with about half in October.
One group’s confidence within the integrity of the election ticked down — Democrats. Their confidence within the nationwide vote rely declined from about 7 in 10 to about 6 in 10, though their certainty within the accuracy of state vote counts remained steady.
Nonetheless, the dip in Democratic confidence is nowhere close to the dimensions of skepticism amongst Republicans after Trump’s defeat in 2020. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, conceded her loss to Trump the day after Election Day and there was no organized Democratic effort to stop the handover of the presidency to Trump, as there was amongst some conservatives in 2020 to attempt to block Biden from ascending to the presidency.
Riccardi reported from Denver.
The AP-NORC ballot of 1,251 adults was carried out Dec. 5-9, 2024, utilizing a pattern drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be consultant of the U.S. inhabitants. The margin of sampling error for adults general is plus or minus 3.7 share factors.
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Initially Printed: January 3, 2025 at 8:18 AM PST
