19% think Trump has chance of overturning election despite legal losses, poll finds

A majority of respondents in a Politico/Morning Consult poll say President Donald Trump has little chance of overturning his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in a poll released Tuesday said that overturning the election results was “very unlikely,” while 12% said it was “somewhat unlikely.” Eleven percent of people surveyed said it was “very likely” that the results would be overturned and 8% said it was “somewhat likely.” Ten percent didn’t know or had no opinion.

The poll, conducted Dec. 4-7, has a sample size of 1,995 registered voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The survey results come as Trump’s campaign has mounted legal challenges to election results in key states. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied Trump’s lawsuit to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, The Washington Post reported.

Trump also recently called the speaker of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives to ask for help in changing the results in the state, but Speaker Bryan Cutler said “he had no authority to step in, or to order the legislature into special session,” according to the publication.

Dec. 8 also marks the “safe harbor” deadline, meaning Congress will accept the results certified by the states by that date, McClatchy News reported. Trump’s legal team said it was pressing forward despite the deadline, with attorney Gregory Rohl telling Politico: “I am prepared to proceed forward and can assure all voters of our steadfast determination to maintain the integrity of our democratic process no matter what corruption attempts to taint it.”

According to the survey, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe that the election could be overturned, with 19% of conservatives saying it was “very likely” and 11% saying it was “somewhat likely” compared to 7% and 4% of liberals who said the same, respectively.

Pennsylvania and Georgia were the states that the most respondents said were “unreliable.” Of those surveyed, 21% said Pennsylvania’s election results were “very unreliable” and 9% said they were “somewhat unreliable.” Forty-two percent said they were “very reliable,” while 13% said they were “somewhat reliable.”

Twenty percent of respondents said Georgia’s results were “very unreliable” and 10% said they were “somewhat unreliable.” Forty-two percent said they were “very reliable,” while 14% said they were “somewhat reliable.”

Georgia re-certified its results for the third time on Monday after three recounts, finding Biden the winner, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, according to CNN. Biden became the first Democrat to win the state in almost three decades, winning by more than 12,000 votes.

Trump has alleged, without evidence, that there was election fraud and the results were “rigged,” according to CNN. On Monday, a Georgia federal judge dismissed two motions brought by his legal team to change results in the state.

This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 2:55 PM with the headline "19% think Trump has chance of overturning election despite legal losses, poll finds."