9 in 10 Democrats say process worked well in election, 9 in 10 Republicans disagree: poll

A poll released Monday determined that more than 9 in 10 Democrats believed the democratic process worked well in the 2020 election, while nearly 9 in 10 Republicans disagree.

A Gallup poll conducted with the Knight Foundation found that 92 percent of Democrats said they thought the democratic process worked effectively in this year’s election, while 89 percent of Republicans said it didn’t. 

The Knight Foundation concluded that the stark difference between Democrats’ and Republicans’ faith in the process “seem to be linked to people’s satisfaction with the outcome” of President-elect Joe Biden being declared the victor. 

Out of all respondents, a majority at 55 percent said the democratic process worked either “very well” or “well,” and a majority at 63 percent said they believed the news reports that Biden was the projected winner. But 37 percent called the news reports and projections inaccurate. 

The perceived accuracy of the news reports projecting Biden’s win also seemed split among partisan lines with 99 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of independents and 17 percent of Republicans identifying them as “accurate.”

Education levels seemed to play a factor, although less so than partisanship, the Knight Foundation noted. A total of 83 percent of college graduates believed the media projections were accurate, compared to 54 percent of non-college graduates. 

Among Democratic respondents, 98 percent of those with a college degree and 99 percent of those without a degree said they believed the news reports. Out of Republicans surveyed, 32 percent of those with a college degree and 15 percent of those without a college degree said the reports were accurate.

“If those views have not changed, having a sizable segment of the population not accept the results as legitimate creates a significant challenge for our democracy,” the Knight Foundation wrote. 

For independents, 73 percent of college graduates and 57 percent of those who did not graduate college said they believed the news reports that Biden had won the election. 

Gallup and the Knight Foundation conducted two polls, one before the election and after the election. For the post-election poll, 2,752 respondents participated between Nov. 9-15 after news outlets projected Biden’s win on Nov. 7. The margin of error for this poll was plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

The poll was completed as part of the Knight Foundation’s Trust, Media and Democracy series.