9/16/21, 10:15 AM CNN Poll: Most Americans feel democracy is under attack in the US - CNNPolitics

CNN Poll: Most Americans feel democracy is under

attack in the US
By Jennifer Agiesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
Updated 1601 GMT (0001 HKT) September 15, 2021

(CNN) — Most Americans feel democracy is under attack in this country (56%), according to a new CNN Poll
conducted by SSRS, as 51% say it is likely that elected officials in the US will successfully overturn the results of a
future election because their party did not win.

Nearly all Americans feel that democracy in the US is at least being tested: 93% total say that democracy is either
under attack (56%) or being tested but not under attack (37%). A scant 6% say that American democracy is in no
danger.

Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say that democracy is under attack, and that view is most
prevalent among those who support former President Donald Trump. All told, 75% of Republicans say democracy
is under attack, compared with 46% of Democrats. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents,
those who say Trump ought to be the leader of the party are much likelier to see democracy as under threat: 79%
in that group vs. 51% among those who say Trump should not be the party's leader.

And Republicans who support Trump continue to drive belief

in the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Although there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the
2020 election, 36% of Americans say that President Joe
Biden did not legitimately get enough votes to win the
presidency. That 36% includes 23% who falsely say there is
solid evidence that Biden did not win, and 13% who say that
is their suspicion only.

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Among Republicans, 78% say that Biden did not win and 54%
believe there is solid evidence of that, despite the fact that no
such evidence exists. That view is also deeply connected to
support for Trump. Among Republicans who say Trump
should be the leader of the party, 88% believe Biden lost --
including 64% who say there is solid evidence that he did not
win -- while among those Republicans who do not want
Trump to lead the Party, 57% say Biden won legitimately.

Looking to future elections, 51% of all Americans say it's at

least somewhat likely that an election in the next few years will
Related Article: Most Republicans want be overturned by elected officials because their party lost,
Trump as the GOP's leader but are divided while 49% say that is unlikely.
about whether he'd help them retake the
Views on this prospect are more closely tied to perceptions of
White House the threat facing American democracy than to partisanship.
Those who say that democracy in America is under attack are
most apt to believe it's likely that an election will be
overturned for partisan reasons (58%), while most who do not
see democracy as under attack say that's unlikely (58%). Among Republicans, 57% say an overturned election is
very or somewhat likely, while 48% of independents and 49% of Democrats feel the same way.

Democrats and independents, though, are driving a drop in confidence that American elections reflect the will of
the people. A narrow majority overall, 52%, now say they lack that confidence, up from 40% who felt that way in
January. Among Democrats, confidence has dipped from 90% in January to 69% now, and among independents,
it's fallen from 54% to 46% over that time, while Republican confidence has held about even and now stands at
24%.

That shift comes after a series of high-profile changes to voting rules and regulations at the state level. Republican
officials in some states have tightened the rules around voting, while some Democratic-controlled states have
taken steps to make looser rules implemented to address the coronavirus pandemic permanent. Less than half
see either side's moves as pure, according to the poll.

Majorities see the parties in control as making these changes

to benefit themselves. About 6 in 10 (58%) say that changes
to voting laws in states controlled by Republicans were made
in order to help the party in power rather than to make
elections more fair, while 53% say the same about such
changes in Democratic-controlled states. Combining the two
results, about a quarter overall say that both parties are acting
in their own best interest (25%), and just 12% say that both
sides are acting to make elections more fair. About a third
each say one party is aiming to make elections more fair while
the other is moving to keep control (33% say Democrats are
making elections more fair and Republicans are acting to help
Related Article: Americans turn
their party, 29% say that Republicans are making elections
pessimistic amid concerns over economy more fair while Democrats are trying to hang on to control).
and coronavirus
Democrats and Republicans in the poll are on opposite sides
of whether the bigger problem with voting rules in US
elections is that they make it too hard to vote or that they
aren't strict enough to prevent illegal votes. Among Republicans, 83% say the problem is that the rules aren't strict
enough while 66% of Democrats say that it is too hard to vote.

The new CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS August 3 through September 7 among a random national sample of
2,119 adults initially reached by mail. Interviews were either conducted online or by telephone with a live
interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

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