Forty-one percent of voters say Donald Trump could have the election “stolen” from him through widespread voter fraud, as Mr. Trump re-ups his fears of a “rigged” general election contest.
That’s according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Monday that found 73 percent of Republicans think the election could be taken away, compared to 17 percent of Democrats.
Eighty-one percent of Trump supporters said they believe the election could be stolen.
Sixty-six percent of voters overall said they are “very” or “somewhat” confident that votes will be counted accurately. Eighty-five percent of Hillary Clinton supporters were confident, compared to about half of Trump supporters.
In the overall horse race, Mrs. Clinton led Mr. Trump by 5 points head-to-head and by 6 points when third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were included.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has ratcheted up charges that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and the media are part of a broad fix, and hit members of his own party on Monday for having their heads in the sand.
“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!” Mr. Trump tweeted Monday.
Republican governors hold office in a number of battleground states, such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa and Wisconsin, though granular oversight of the elections process and Election Day activity is often overseen by a secretary of state and/or local officials.
“The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD,” Mr. Trump had also tweeted Sunday.
The survey was taken from Oct. 13-15. The second presidential debate was on Oct. 9. On Oct. 12, The New York Times reported the stories of two women who said Mr. Trump touched or kissed them inappropriately a number of years ago.
A number of women have come out since then to make similar charges, which Mr. Trump has denied. The accusations come after the Oct. 7 release of a 2005 tape in which Mr. Trump boasts about leveraging his star status to force himself onto women, though he said he never actually followed through on the lewd actions he described in the video.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.