By Chris Kahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly 80% of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election after most media organizations called the race for the Democrat based on his leads in critical battleground states, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
While the race with Republican incumbent Donald Trump still remained undecided in three states by late Tuesday afternoon, Biden – who needed 270 Electoral College votes to win – had 279 of those votes to 214 for Trump, according to Edison Research. In the popular vote, Biden got 76.3 million, or 50.7% of the total, to 71.6 million, or 47.6%, for Trump.
The Reuters/Ipsos national opinion survey, which ran from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday, found that 79% of U.S. adults believe Biden won the White House. Another 13% said the election has not yet been decided, 3% said Trump won and 5% said they do not know.
The results were somewhat split along party lines: about six in 10 Republicans and almost every Democrat said Biden won.
Edison Research, which conducts exit polling for Reuters and major media outlets, called the race for Biden on Saturday after he expanded his lead over Trump in Pennsylvania and appeared well on his way to amassing 270 electoral votes. [nL1N2HT069]
Trump has yet to recognize the result of the race. He prematurely declared victory well before the votes had been counted and has repeatedly complained without evidence that he is the victim of widespread voter fraud.
His claims have been echoed by members of Trump’s Cabinet. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal investigations of “substantial” allegations of voting irregularities, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said he foresees “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” [nL1N2HW02P][nL1N2HW2F3]
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was part of a broader survey that was conducted Friday to Tuesday and included responses before the presidential race was called.
It showed that 70% of Americans, including 83% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans, trust their local election officials to “do their job honestly.”
The poll also found that 72% think the loser of the election must concede defeat, and 60% think there will be a peaceful transition of power when Trump’s term ends in January.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,363 U.S. adults in all, including 469 respondents who took the poll between Saturday afternoon and Tuesday. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 5 percentage points.
(Reporting by Chris Kahn, editing by Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)
