A new poll shows about 47 percent of Republicans in the US believe that a time will come when “patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.”
Comparatively, only 9 percent of Democrats agreed with the statement that "a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands," according to George Washington University’s poll on Americans’ faith in election systems and democratic values.
The GW Politics poll was conducted among more than 1,700 registered voters from June 4 to June 23 and released this week.
The poll found that support for principles like free and fair elections, free speech, and peaceful protest was nearly unanimous among Democratic and Republican voters.
However, nearly 55 percent of Republicans said they support the potential use of force to preserve the “traditional American way of life,” compared to just 15 percent of Democrats who agreed with them.
Republicans did not have a strong amount of faith in local and state elections. But 85 percent of Democrats expressed trust in local election officials, with 76 percent said the same of state officials.
Only 28 percent of Republicans said they were confident in the midterm elections in 2022 compared to 46 percent measured before the 2020 general elections.
However, 76 percent of Democrats said they were confident going into the 2020 elections, and close to 75 percent say the same going into the upcoming midterms elections.
Republican doubt in the integrity of American elections has grown largely due to claims from former GOP President Donald Trump and his allies that widespread voter fraud resulted in disputed 2020 election results.