Irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, as alleged by former President Donald Trump, are creeping back into the minds of registered Republicans and GOP-leaning independents.
A full 69% of those voters say they have doubts President Joe Biden legitimately received the votes that propelled him to the White House over Trump, according to the latest CNN poll.
Notably, that number is back on the rise to nearly 70% after previous polls showed it declining to 63%. The rise to 69% is still below the 2021 high of 72% of those saying they doubted Biden's Electoral College victory was legitimate.
Half of Americans (50%) say it is at least somewhat likely lawmakers will eventually successfully challenge an election, flipping a loss to a victory. That is a key component of special counsel Jack Smith's four-count indictment filed against Trump stemming from Trump's 2020 presidential election challenge..
And, it is an issue independent voters — the deciding demographic in polarized presidential elections — are keen to. A majority of independents (53%) see it at least somewhat likely lawmakers will eventually flip an election loss to a victory if their party challenges an election in the future. That is up from 42% last summer in CNN's polling.
A majority of Americans (58%) have at least a little doubt elections reflect the will of the people, and only 13% are "very confident" in U.S. election legitimacy.
The poll was conducted just before Smith indicted Trump.
The number for doubting Biden got the votes among Trump's self-described 2020 voters was 75% in the latest poll.
That's nearly double the 38% of all Americans who doubt Biden legitimately got the votes, a relatively high number considering political polarization and Biden having received the most presidential election votes at an estimated 81 million.
When Democrats and independents or third-party voters that do not lean Republican are considered, a majority of Americans (61%) see Biden's 2020 election vote total as legitimate.
The pollster SSRS conducted the poll for CNN among 1,279 U.S. adults and 547 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. The margins of error are plus or minus 3.7 percentage points and 5.7 percentage points, respectively.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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