Most Republicans Still Believe 2020 Election Was Rigged, Trump Is Actual President: Poll

A majority of Republican voters still believe that the November 2020 presidential election was rigged and that former President Donald Trump was the actual winner.

In a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted between May 17 to 19, 53% of Republicans said Trump is the “true president” of the United States. In comparison, only 3% of Democratic voters and 25% of all Americans share the same sentiment.

The survey also found that one-quarter of adults, including 56% of Republicans, believe there was "widespread illegal voting" during the Nov. 3 election. Only 5% of Democrats and 16% of independent voters feel that way.

Joe Biden received 81,283,098 of the votes, while Trump won 74,222,958. The final tally in the Electoral College was 306 to 232 in favor of Biden who successfully flipped five states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. It also said that Biden is the first U.S. presidential candidate to have won more than 80 million votes.

Following the election debacle, Trump refused to concede defeat and accused media outlets that called the race for Biden of “colluding with the latter in trying to steal the White House.”

The former president and his supporters repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories, such as accusing a voting machine company of fraud or claiming that Republican poll watchers were not allowed to monitor votes being counted in “Democrat-run cities, in key states all across the nation,” among other claims on multiple conservative new outlets.

U.S. federal and state officials have since said that they found no evidence of voter fraud during the presidential election, dismissing the claims advanced by the former president and his supporters.

Despite this, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 61% of Republicans believe the election was “stolen” from Trump. Additionally, only 29% believe he is at least partly to blame for the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The Capitol attack at the Capitol came after Trump tweeted allegations of voter fraud hours before his rally in Washington D.C. Roughly 15 minutes into the rally, the former president gave an inflammatory speech encouraging the crowd to march to converge on the Capitol as lawmakers were counting Electoral College votes to confirm Biden’s victory.

"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard," Trump told a crowd of supporters at the time.

The Jan. 6 riot led to the death of five people, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who was overpowered and beaten by rioters, according to The New York Times.