Two-thirds say the election was fair: poll

Sixty-six percent of voters said they believe the 2020 presidential election was fair, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey released on Tuesday. 

Another 34 percent said they believed the November election was unfair.

The poll, which comes on the last full day of the Trump presidency, also found that 62 percent of respondents said they thought the system of mail-in ballots was fair, while 38 percent said it was unfair. 

The issue of election integrity dominated the headlines following Election Day after President Trump claimed repeatedly, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud took place resulting in his loss. 

Government officials, including then-Attorney General William Barr, said they had found no evidence of widespread fraud. 

The constant claims of a “rigged election” from Trump and his supporters eventually led to the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington earlier this month. Trump and his allies addressed the crowd on stage before a large number of the attendees stormed the Capitol during Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote. 

The ensuing riot resulted in five deaths, multiple injuries and damage to the Capitol complex. 

In a Tuesday address on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Trump of provoking the violence by feeding the crowd lies. 

“The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. 

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey of 2,006 registered voters was conducted from Jan. 12 to 14. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll.

Full poll results will be posted online later this week. The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.