Nearly half of Americans feel November 3 election will not be fair and 61% fear another civil war, polls show
The US presidential election is less than a month away now but nearly half of the country’s voters from both the Republican and Democratic parties are showing less confidence over its validity and even feel that the country could be on the verge of another civil war after the results come out, new polls have suggested.
President Donald Trump has not committed to a peaceful transition of power, particularly because of his cynical view on the mail-in voting system which he thinks would result in a farce in the name of election. He has also given an indication that the election could end up at the Supreme Court for a long-drawn battle and also rushed his nomination for a conservative judge soon after the passing away of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month. His words hinting at non-commitment to vacating office have fuelled the opponents’ apprehension over what could happen if Trump loses the contest against his Democratic rival Joe Biden. They feel Trump will use the mail-in voting as an excuse to discredit the election outcome if he loses.
51% feel people won't agree on who is 'legitimate' prez
According to the YouGov survey, which was conducted online on October 1-2 and covered 1,999 registered voters, 47 percent of the respondents did not agree to the view that the upcoming election ‘is likely to be fair and honest’. Besides, a high 51 percent felt they did not think that the Americans will ‘generally agree on who is the legitimately elected president’ while 56 percent said that they expect to witness ‘an increase in violence as a result of the election’.
When split party-wise, it was seen in the survey that equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans felt the election would not be fair or honest. The Democrats (54.84 percent) were ahead of the Republicans (50.36 percent) to say that they believed the Americans would not agree on the results. However, on the question of likely violence after the election, the YouGov survey showed more GOP members (59.47 percent) agreeing to the possibility than Democrats (53.42 percent).
61% fear a civil war, says another poll
Meanwhile, another survey covering 491 registered voters said 61 percent feared that the US could slip down towards a civil war in the wake of the poll. While 40 percent strongly agree with the view, 21 percent somewhat agree. The survey was conducted on September 23 by three firms, namely, Engagious, the Sports and Leisure Research Group, and ROKK Solutions, and was named ‘Back to Normal Barometer’.
“This is the single most frightening poll result I've ever been associated with,” Rich Thau, president of Engagious, said in a report while announcing the results. The ‘civil war’ part was the most prominent point of the ‘Back To Normal Barometer’ survey with 52 percent of ‘very liberal’ and ‘very conservative’ respondents backing the concern. In the case of ‘somewhat liberal’, ‘moderate’, and ‘somewhat moderate’ respondents, the figures were 32 percent, 34 percent, and 35 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Braver Angels -- an organization that aims to ‘unite red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America’ and commissioned the YouGov survey -- released a ‘Letter From America’ inviting citizens and organizations to sign a pledge slamming violence from either political party no matter which candidate eventually wins. According to the pledge: “If in the near future we face a constitutional crisis in which our institutions cannot produce consensus on who is the legitimately elected president, we resolve to work together across this chasm for solutions grounded in the Constitution and guided by our democratic and non-violent traditions and our sense of shared destiny.”