According to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, 70% of Republicans feel that the presidential election wasn’t free and fair, believing that mail-in voting led to widespread voter fraud and ballot tampering, though there is no evidence of such claims.

Prior to the election, just 35% of Republicans questioned the legitimacy of US elections.  However afterwards, that number doubled, with most Republicans echoing conspiracy theories propagated by the losing incumbent presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The poll, taken after networks called the election for President-elect Joe Biden, found 78% of Republicans believed that mail-in voting led to widespread voter fraud and 72% believed that ballots were tampered with.  Of those who stated the elections were not free and fair, 84% said the malfeasance benefitted Biden. 

The percentage of Republicans who said they don’t trust election results jump after the announcement of Biden’s win:  18% said they wouldn’t trust election results prior to Election Day; afterward, that skyrocketed to 84%.  In contrast, 86% of Democrats say they trust the results.

The doubt is being exacerbated by a barrage of tweets and statements by Donald Trump and the Trump campaign claiming that there were fake vote counts, intentional malfeasance by local election officials, and tens of millions of false ballots.  The conspiracy, however, does not explain why Trump lost but Democrats did not easily take over the Senate or win more seats in the House.