Poll: 70% of Republicans Say 2020 Election Was Neither Free, Nor Fair

A new poll suggests that 70% of Republicans believe the 2020 election was neither free, nor fair.

The poll of 1,987 registered voters, conducted by Morning Consult and Politico, began before Election Day, though most interviews were done afterward.

A majority of both Democrats and Republicans appear to have believed the election would be free and fair before the votes were counted, but the result have changed their impressions radically.

Politico reported:

Multiple new organizations announced Biden as the election winner on Saturday after four days of counting in several swing states. Following the news, 70 percent of Republicans now say they don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair, a stark rise from the 35 percent of GOP voters who held similar beliefs before the election. Meanwhile, trust in the election system grew for Democrats, many who took to the streets to celebrate Biden’s victory on Saturday. Ninety percent of Democrats now say the election was free and fair, up from 52 percent before Nov. 3 who thought it would be.

Among Republicans who believed that the election wasn’t free and fair, 78 percent believed that mail-in voting led to widespread voter fraud and 72 percent believed that ballots were tampered with — both claims that have made a constant appearance on the president’s Twitter thread. Like President Donald Trump, a majority of the people that thought the election was unfair, 84 percent, said it benefited Biden.

The lack of trust in the election system has led to Republicans being more skeptical about the election results. Although only 18 percent of Republicans had said the results would be unreliable prior to Election Day, now 64 percent feel the same way following Biden’s victory. By contrast, 86 percent of Democrats say they trust the results.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international body, has set standards for determining whether an election is, in fact, “free and fair.”

The standards include (emphasis added):

(3) Everyone individually and together with others has the right:

• To express political opinions without interference;
• To seek, receive and impart information and to make an informed choice;
• To move freely within the country in order to campaign for election;
• To campaign on an equal basis with other political parties, including the party forming the existing government.

(4) Every candidate for election and every political party shall have an equal opportunity of access to the media, particularly the mass communications media, in order to put forward their political views.

(5) The right of candidates to security with respect to their lives and property shall be recognized and protected.

Many of the conditions above were violated during the 2020 election, thanks to social media censorship, coronavirus restrictions, and political violence.

The standards also require that “steps are taken to guarantee non-partisan coverage in State and public-service media,” a principle violated by demonstrable media bias, including by publicly-funded outlets.

In addition, the standards provide that governments should “take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that the principle of the secret ballot is respected, and that voters are able to cast their ballots freely, without fear or intimidation.”

As Breitbart News has noted, the secret ballot is arguably compromised by vote-by-mail, because the name of the voter accompanies a ballot on the outer envelope.

Finally, the standards require “the transparency of the entire electoral process including, for example, through the presence of party agents and duly accredited observers.” Republican observers say they have been excluded in several states.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.