Trump’s campaign to undercut trust in the election is resonating with his voters.
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Version 0 of 1. Interviews with Republican voters in five battleground states in recent days showed that Mr. Trump’s unrelenting campaign to portray the nation’s voting systems as compromised and untrustworthy has intensified the deep misgivings his supporters have about the integrity of the process. While some said they were troubled by the idea that Mr. Trump could refuse to leave if he suffered a decisive defeat, many simply do not believe that he can, or will, lose. And in the event the president does come up short in November, these voters generally agreed that he would be justified in raising questions about whether Democrats had manipulated the outcome rather than accepting disputed results or trusting the state-by-state race calls of news organizations. Alan Knight, a 68-year-old Republican from Sahuarita, Ariz., said Mr. Trump was “going to wait and see whether it was an honest election before handing over power.” Sylvia Rhodes Blakey, 73, of Green Valley, Ariz., was categorical: The only way Mr. Trump will lose is if the Democrats rig the election in favor of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, she said. “There’s going to be massive attempts at fraud,” Ms. Blakey said. “There are so many illegals that have the names of dead people, and they’re voting on those ballots.” Even though there is no evidence of such widespread fraud, the allegation came up repeatedly among Republicans as a reason for Mr. Trump not to commit to handing over power. |