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Three-in-10 Americans still believe President Joe Biden won his 2020 election only due to voter fraud, a new poll shows — a durable number that highlights the disconnect on one of the foundational issues facing American democracy.
A new Monmouth poll finds 30% of respondents believe Biden's victory came thanks to voter fraud, while 59% say he won the election "fair and square." That share is virtually unchanged in Monmouth's polling since November of 2020 — the share of Americans who believe it remained between 32% and 29%.
There remains no evidence that widespread fraud substantially affected the outcome of the 2020 election, and virtually all of the dozens of legal cases filed by former President Donald Trump and allies were dismissed or withdrawn. But despite that, Trump has continued to repeat his claims the election was stolen from him, accusations elevated by other prominent allies along the way.
Virtually all Democrats (93%) say Biden won the election fairly, a view shared by 58% of independents. Just 21% of Republicans believe Biden won his election fair and square, while 68% say he won "due to voter fraud."
That's very similar to Monmouth's findings in the weeks after the 2020 election, when 18% of Republicans, 67% of independents and 95% of Democrats said Biden's election victory was fair.
While there has been only small movement among Republicans on the question of the 2020 election's legitimacy, Monmouth finds more significant movement on questions related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Forty-four percent of Republicans say it's appropriate to describe the events that occurred that day as a "riot," down from 62% in June of 2021. And only 15% of Republicans say it's appropriate to describe the events as an "insurrection," down from 33% in June of 2021.
Over the last two years, about half of Republicans have continued to call the events a "legitimate protest" in Monmouth's poll.
Monmouth polled 981 adults in America by landline, cell phone and an online panel from May 18 to 23 with a margin of error of +/- 5.6%.