The lion’s share of Republican voters in Arizona believe the ongoing audit of election results in Maricopa County will turn up enough evidence to show that former President Trump was the real winner in the state last year.
An Arizona Public Opinion Pulse survey conducted by OH Predictive Insights found that 62% of registered Republican voters in Arizona said the audit will show Mr. Trump beat President Biden in Arizona, compared to 2% of Democrats and 25% of independents who believe that.
The survey also found that roughly a quarter of GOP voters also believe Mr. Trump will be reinstated to office.
“Republicans are counting on this audit to prove the rhetoric they have heard on Fox News and other conservative news sources – that Trump won Arizona and the entire election,” said Mike Noble, OHPI chief of research.
Mr. Biden was certified as the winner in Arizona after he won the state by about 11,000 of the 3.4 million votes cast. It was the first time a Democrat has carried Arizona in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Since then Mr. Trump and his allies have waged a relentless war on the election results, airing unproven allegations of massive voter fraud that have become a rallying cry for his supporters.
Mr. Trump’s backers are now eagerly anticipating the results of the audit, which will get additional attention this week when Mr. Trump travels to Phoenix to headline Turning Point Action’s “Rally to Protect Our Elections.”
The leaders of the audit have complained that Maricopa County has refused to cooperate with their inquiry — even suggesting last week they could as a result come forward with an incomplete report.
Critics, meanwhile, say the audit has been a sham since it started and say that is undermining democracy. They say the allegations of widespread fraud are bogus and say the company hired to lead the audit has no clue what it is doing.
The OHPI poll showed that 39% of Republicans believe there was no evidence of widespread fraud, compared to 85% of Democrats and 76% of independents.
The survey of 863 registered voters, conducted July 6-July 11, has an error margin of 3.3 percentage points.
