Poll: Less than one-quarter of Republicans trust election results

Less than a quarter of Republicans said they trust election results showing Joe Biden secured the presidency, a survey released Wednesday found. 

Only 24 percent of GOP respondents in the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll expressed confidence in last month’s presidential election results, although a majority of Americans at 61 percent said they trust the outcome.

Thirty-four percent of Americans surveyed said they don’t trust the election results, including 72 percent of Republicans. Democrats widely accept the election results at 95 percent, while a majority of independents at 67 percent said they trust the results showing a Biden victory. 

President Trump has refused to concede to Biden, who has been recognized as the president-elect for more than a month. Instead, he and his campaign have promoted unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, filing lawsuits in multiple states to try to overturn their tallies. 

Most respondents, at 65 percent, think that Trump should formally concede to Biden, including 93 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents. But among Republicans, 62 percent say they don’t think the president should concede.

Although he hasn’t conceded, Trump alluded to a possible 2024 presidential run in his remarks at the White House Christmas party last week.

A majority of U.S. adults surveyed at 60 percent said they do not want to see Trump run again, compared to 32 percent who said they do. Eight percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents said they want to see another Trump campaign, compared to 67 percent of Republicans.

Most Americans so far back how Biden has handled himself during the presidential transition, at 56 percent, more than the 49 percent who approved of Trump during the 2016 transition. A total of 59 percent of respondents said Biden will do more to unite the country than divide, compared to 43 percent who said the same about Trump in 2016.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll surveyed 1,065 U.S. adults, including 916 registered voters, between Dec. 1 and 6. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points for the whole population and 4 percentage points among registered voters.