WASHINGTON (AP) – About three-quarters of voters who supported Republican candidates in Senate elections in Georgia say President-elect Joe Biden was not legitimately elected in November, according to AP VoteCast, a poll of voters in Senate competitions with Tuesday’s high bet.
The poll of voters measured how deeply President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud and misconduct resonate with Republicans in the state. It’s because more than 100 Republicans in Congress have said they will face an extraordinary challenge for Biden’s victory Wednesday a decision that sharply divides the party.
Despite courts, state officials and the Justice Department finding no evidence of widespread voter fraud, about 9 in 10 Republican donors said they did not have great confidence that votes were being accurately counted in November’s presidential election. Half said they had no confidence at all in the number of votes. That’s about five times as many Republicans who said in November they had no confidence that votes would be accurately counted.
AP VoteCast surveyed more than 3,600 voters in the second election who will determine which party will control the US Senate. The poll points to a partisan divergence that has only gotten worse since November and suggests that Biden may find it difficult to reattach the nation as it battles a resurgent pandemic and weakened economy.
While about 8 in 10 Republican voters agree with Trump’s handling of the election results, Democratic voters almost universally disapprove. Most Democrats are confident that votes have been accurately counted.
If both Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win in Georgia, their party would occupy half of the 100 senate seats, with vice president-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker. But if their respective opponents, David Perdue and Senator Kelly Loeffler, are victorious, the GOP would have a narrow majority in the Senate to challenge Biden and the Democrats who lead the House of Representatives.
About 6 in 10 Georgia voters said Senate control was the most important factor in their choice. Republican backers, however, prioritized holding a majority in the Senate rather than Democratic supporters.
With Biden winning Georgia by just 11,779 votes in November, the Senate races will likely be decided by turnout. Democratic areas performed strongly in early ballots, suggesting that Republicans needed a strong demonstration from supporters to vote Tuesday.
The democratic operation to get out of the vote appears to have been broader. About 6 in 10 voters in Georgia said they would contact them on behalf of the Democratic candidates before the election, compared to about half reached on behalf of the Republicans.
The election came after Congress and Trump approved an additional $ 900 billion in aid for an economy that was still muddling through the coronavirus outbreak. The spending package included comprehensive unemployment benefits, $ 600 in direct payments to individuals earning up to $ 75,000 annually, and $ 284 billion to help smaller employers pay their salaries.
Almost two-thirds of all voters in Georgia were pessimistic about the country’s future. While the Democrats’ stance has improved only slightly, Republican attitudes to the country have changed dramatically.
In November, about three-quarters of Republican voters in Georgia thought the country was on the right track. Now about 7 in 10 say the country is going the wrong way.
A large majority of voters in Georgia – 7 in 10 – say Congress is doing too little to help the financial situation of individual Americans and small businesses in response to the pandemic. That view was taken by a majority of both Democratic and Republican voters, although about a quarter of Loeffler and Perdue voters said Congress was providing the right amount of aid.
The experience of the candidates was a source of discussion in both campaigns. Neither Ossoff, a 33-year-old media executor, nor Warnock, 51, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, a congregation once led by civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., has held public office.
Republican Loeffler was appointed to the Senate in 2019 after a career in the finance industry after amassing a family fortune of approximately $ 500 million, largely from her husband’s position as head of the New York-owned company. Stock Exchange and other financial institutions. markets.
Voters are deeply divided on whether Ossoff, Warnock or Loeffler each “has the right experience to serve effectively as a senator,” while about two-thirds say Perdue does. Perdue was elected to the Senate in 2014, but the term of the former Dollar General CEO expired on Sunday.
Both Republican candidates have come under scrutiny for extensive stock trading in office. A majority of voters, 56%, say they are very or somewhat concerned about the allegations that Perdue and Loeffler engaged in insider trading. That includes about 2 in 10 of their own lenders.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been branded “radicals” and “socialist” by their GOP rivals. The poll found that voters are slightly more likely to view Democratic candidates as “too extreme” in their political views. About half say Warnock and Ossoff are, compared to about 4 in 10 for Perdue and Loeffler.
Among Republican voters, Loeffler and Perdue’s association with Trump was viewed as favorable. About 8 in 10 of their backers said the GOP candidates are backing Trump the right amount.
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AP VoteCast is a survey of the United States electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News and The Associated Press. The poll of 3,792 voters in Georgia ran for eight days and ended when the polls closed. The interviews were conducted in English. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters from the state voter base and self-proclaimed registered voters selected from unlikely online panels. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://www.ap.org/votecast.