A new poll finds that many Americans believe democracy could be at risk depending on who wins November’s presidential election.
According to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Research Center, Released ThursdayThe poll found that 59% of Americans believe the election could put democracy into question, including 67% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans. It also found that fewer Americans believe American democracy is strong enough to withstand the possible election outcomes.
The survey found that only 21% of Americans believe U.S. democracy is strong enough to withstand the outcome of the presidential election, including 24% of Republicans, 20% of Democrats and 19% of independents.
Others were more pessimistic, with just 18% of Americans saying it doesn’t matter who wins because democracy is already broken. That included 37% of independents, 17% of Republicans and 12% of Democrats, according to the poll.
Overall, 74 percent of Americans said the presidential election is extremely or very important to the future of democracy. Roughly 82 percent said the election is extremely or very important to the economy, 70 percent said immigration and 49 percent said climate change.
The comments come as Democrats and Republicans alike warn that democracy is at risk if their rivals win the November election. President Biden has repeatedly portrayed former President Trump as a threat to democracy, but has said that he is the “opposite” of that threat.
Biden, who dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Harris as his successor, said in a new interview that he has “no confidence at all” that there would be a peaceful transition of power if Trump loses the election. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), were certified as the leading Democratic candidate earlier this week.
President Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), accepted the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.
A tally of national polls from The Hill/Decision Desk headquarters shows Harris and the former president neck-and-neck at 47.4 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively.
The poll was conducted July 25-29 among 1,143 U.S. adults and has a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
