Majority of registered voters accept Trump's win as legitimate: Poll

The majority of registered voters say they accept President-elect Trump's victory in the White House race, regardless of feelings, according to a recent exit poll.

The YouGov/Economist survey, released Friday, shows that 75 percent of registered voters said they believe Trump's win over Vice President Harris was legitimate. Broken down by party, 52 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of independents and 97 percent of Republicans said they accepted the outcome.

More than two-thirds of voters also said they believed that their voters were accurately counted and that the election was conducted fairly, according to the poll. In a similar survey counted in October, only 55 percent of respondents said they were "a great deal" or "quite a bit" confident that their votes would be reflected correctly.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ called the race for Trump early Wednesday, and Harris has publicly conceded the race. President Biden and the vice president have both encouraged a peaceful transfer of power and said the election was fair.

Still, nearly half of registered voters — 46 percent — said protests over the results are "very or somewhat likely" to occur, the survey found. That number includes 55 percent of Trump supporters and 37 percent who backed Harris.

Just over a third, 36 percent, thought violence following the election outcome is “very or somewhat likely," including 50 percent of the former president's supporters and 21 percent who sided with the vice president, according to the poll.

Only 9 percent said they believe enough voter fraud took place to impact the results.

Around 66 percent of voters also suggested Trump got more votes than they expected. Some 21 percent said the numbers were what they expected, the data shows.

The GOP nominee swept all seven battleground states — Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin. He also made gains in heavily Democratic states such as Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

The president-elect is also on track to win the popular vote — which a Republican has not won since former President George W. Bush in the 2004 race.

Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters, 58 percent, said Harris garnered fewer voters than they expected, while 14 percent said she received what was expected, according to the survey.

The Economist/YouGov exit poll was conducted from Nov. 6-7 among 1,590 registered voters. The margin of error was around 3 percentage points.