New voter restrictions are based on a lie told to appease Trump voters

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These polls are the latest to indicate that Republicans mistakenly think the 2020 elections were not legitimate when that was clear.

What’s the point: Republicans have pushed state-level legislation to make voting at least slightly more difficult than it was for the 2020 election. This has come in the aftermath of polls showing many Republicans doubt the election results. It is unclear what effect this legislation will ultimately have on future election results.

What is perfectly clear, however, is that the Republicans’ lack of confidence in our current electoral infrastructure is a direct result of Trump’s historic efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 results.

After Trump left the White House in January, Monmouth University asked Americans if they thought the 2020 election had been fair and confident. Overall, most (66%) were convinced this was the case.

But the lion’s share of Republicans (65%) disagreed, saying they had no confidence at all that the election was fair and accurate, which is in line with the Ipsos poll discussed above. This 65% has really been an anomaly lately.

After every election from 2004 to 2016, the Pew Research Center asked voters if they were sure that votes were being accurately counted across the country.

The voters for the losing candidate in that election were much more confident than Trump voters in the results of the 2020 election. In every election from 2004 to 2016, between 8% and 14% of the losing candidate’s voters said none at all. to have confidence in the legitimate elections. In 2016, only 11% of Hillary Clinton voters had no confidence at all.

This means that this time around, Republicans are anywhere from 40 points to 50 points more likely to say they were not confident in the results than a losing candidate’s backers in recent times.

The big difference this time around is that the losing candidate over and over again casts open doubt about the results.

Despite a clear margin for Biden, the Republicans’ doubts come in the swing states that made the difference. Trump would have had to win at least three states he lost by more than 10,000 votes (one he lost by more than 20,000) to prevent Biden from getting 270 electoral votes.
Trump’s margins versus Clinton in the crucial swing states were comparable to Biden’s versus Trump in terms of percentage points, but Clinton’s voters had nowhere near the same doubt about the results.
Trump’s false accusations have certainly changed the way Republicans think about who should be able to vote. Last month, Pew asked Americans whether citizens should prove that they really want to vote by registering in advance or whether everything should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote.

Today, only 28% of Republicans say that everything should be done to make it easy for citizens to vote. That compares to 71% saying that citizens must prove that they really want to vote.

In 2018 (before Trump lost), the split was much closer: 48% of Republicans who felt voting should be made as easy as possible to 51% who felt that voters should prove it.

(By comparison, Democrats have barely moved on with the issue: 85% think voting should be made as easy as possible. That was 84% ​​in 2018.)

The only thing that really changed between 2018 and 2021 was the 2020 elections.

It should be noted that the Republicans are in the minority on this issue. Most Americans (59%) say that everything should be done to make it as easy as possible for citizens to vote.

Perhaps most importantly, it is not at all clear that attempts to appease those who have doubts about the system will actually work.

We can see this by looking at studies on voter photo identification laws, which many Republicans have backed to ensure that those who vote are who they say they are.

Most Americans (72%) are in favor of them, according to a new AP / NORC poll. That makes it one of the few electoral reforms implemented by Republicans that most Americans agree with.
The problem is, studies show that having voter identification laws doesn’t really increase confidence in the legitimacy of the electoral process. There is much reason to doubt that Republican pressure to shift current electoral laws will give Republicans more confidence in the system.

People who believe in conspiracy theories find ways to disbelieve the truth.

What would really help people gain confidence in our election process is that if Trump and other Republicans stopped lying to their constituents and admitted the truth, Biden has legitimately won the election.

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