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Two in three Republicans worried about election manipulation: poll

Ballot drop box outside of the Mason County auditors office is seen behind a voter registration banner, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, in Shelton, Wash. Washington is an all-mail voting state. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Almost two-thirds of Republicans are worried that the results from next month’s midterm elections could be manipulated, according to a new USA Today/ Suffolk University poll. 

The new poll, published on Sunday, found that 62 percent of registered Republicans expressed concern about the results of the midterm election being manipulated, compared to just 21 percent of Democrats.

Among GOP respondents, 64 percent said they’ll cast their vote for a candidate who has questioned the legitimacy of President Biden’s 2020 election victory, compared to 84 percent of Democrats who said they will not.  

Among registered Independent respondents, 53 percent said they will not support a candidate who questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s win, while 33 percent said they would.

The latest poll comes with about a week until the midterm elections, with a tight race for control of the Senate and closely contested governor races across the country.

Former President Trump and his allies have pushed falsehoods about the 2020 election since Trump lost to President Biden, with many GOP-led states passing laws to address the largely unfounded claims of voting fraud.

Those claims also helped fuel the Jan 6., 2021 attack at the Capitol, when pro-Trump supporters attempted to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden’s electoral college victory. 

Sixty-six percent of respondents to the poll said that the country is headed down the wrong track, while 24 percent of those surveyed believe the country is on the right path.  

The USA Today/Suffolk University poll was conducted from October 19 to October 24 with a total of 1,000 respondents. The poll’s margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.