Nearly 9 in 10 Americans want all votes counted no matter who wins

Washington, DC,  November 6, 2020 –   The latest public opinion poll from Reuters/Ipsos, conducted on November fourth and fifth, shows that 86% of Americans say it is important that all ballots are counted no matter who wins the elections. Democrats (92%) and Republicans (88%) both agree on this point. Sixty-eight percent of Americans trust that their local election officials are doing their jobs honestly, including 78% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans. More than half of Americans (57%) say they are confident that mail-in and absentee ballots are being accurately counted, but Republicans (45%) are less likely to agree on this than Democrats (72%). About six in ten Americans (58%) - including 63% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans - say they are concerned that ballots may be rejected because of silly procedural reasons. Democrats are more skeptical that the Electoral College will reflect the will of the people (49%) than Republicans (63%).

Fifty-eight percent of Americans say President Trump’s early declaration of victory on election night is not justified. About two in five Republicans say the victory speech is justified (38%), but a majority say either it was not justified (33%) or they do not know (29%). Eighty-five percent of Democrats say it is not justified, 7% say it is, and 8% say they do not know. Two-thirds of Americans say Donald Trump is acting irresponsibly by claiming early victory (68%). More than half (54%) say that Trump’s premature declaration is bad for America’s democracy, and 84% say candidates should not be declaring victory until all of the votes are counted. A majority say that America’s democracy can withstand a candidate claiming early victory (53%), and 83% say the democracy can withstand waiting until all the votes are counted to know who the winner of the election is. Most are confident that the winner of the election will be able to take office peacefully in January 2021 (61%).

Americans are most likely to say that the outcome of the election makes them feel worried (35%), followed by hopeful (16%), and indifferent (10%). About 5% report they feel happy about the election results, 5% say they feel angry, and 4% say they feel sad. 

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between November 4-5, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,115 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 524 Democrats, 417 Republicans and 101 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval ± 4.9 percentage points for Democrats, ± 5.5 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 11.1 percentage points for independents.  

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

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