Most GOP Voters Still Don’t Think Biden Was Elected Fairly

Much of the impeachment case against former President Trump in this week’s Senate trial has focused on his claims about election fraud, but a majority of Republican voters agree with his claim that Joe Biden was not elected fairly.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters say Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly, but 61% of Republicans say Biden did not win the election fairly. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The impeachment case presented by House Democrats in the Senate trial accuses Trump of making false claims about election fraud that incited his supporters to riot at the Capitol on January 6. But 34% of voters say Biden did not win the election fairly, including 36% of voters not affiliated with either major political party.

Furthermore, a majority say public figures should not be punished for saying the 2020 election was stolen. Only 35% of voters say public figures should be punished for saying the election was stolen, while 54% say they should not, and 11% are not sure.

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The survey of 918 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on February 10-11, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The percentage of voters who believe Biden won the 2020 election fairly has not increased much since early January. At that time, 55% percent of voters said Biden had been elected fairly, 39% said he had not. In that January survey, 69% of GOP voters said Biden had not won the presidential election fairly.

Widespread use of mail-in voting during the 2020 election is a major factor undermining confidence in the results. While 52% of voters say mail-in voting worked well for the most part, 42% say mail-in voting led to unprecedented voter fraud in the 2020 election. Those numbers have not changed much since early December, when 39% said mail-in voting led to fraud in the election.

Republicans still overwhelmingly believe mail-in voting resulted in fraud. Seventy percent (70%) of GOP voters say mail-in voting led to unprecedented fraud in the 2020 election, as do 11% of Democrats and 46% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

Among voters who say Biden did not win the election fairly, 76% say mail-in voting resulted in unprecedent fraud.

As might be expected, Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are most eager to punish those who say they believe the 2020 election was stolen. Among voters who strongly approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 68% say public figures should be punished for saying the election was stolen. Among voters who strongly disapprove of Biden’s performance, by contrast, only 8% say public figures should be punished for saying they believe the election was stolen, and 89% say they should not be punished.

Younger voters are more likely to believe Biden was elected fairly. Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters under 40 say Biden won the election fairly, compared to 51% of voters 65 and older.

With 7,000 National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C., during the Senate impeachment trial of former President Trump, Americans are divided along partisan lines about whether this extra security is necessary.

As the Senate began its impeachment trial of former President Trump this week, most voters don’t believe Trump will be convicted and few expect to watch the entire trial on TV.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.