6 in 10 Americans say democracy at stake depending on election results: Survey

Many Americans in a new survey said they believe democracy could be at risk depending on who wins the presidential election in November.

The latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Research Center, published Thursday, found 59 percent of Americans believe democracy could be on the ballot at the election, including 67 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans. It also found that smaller shares of Americans believe the U.S.’s democracy is strong enough to withstand the potential results.

According to the survey, just 21 percent of Americans believe the U.S. democracy is strong enough to withstand the results of the presidential election. This includes 24 percent of Republicans, 20 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of independents.

Others offered a more pessimistic view, with just 18 percent of Americans saying that it does not matter who wins because democracy is already broken. This includes 37 percent of independents, 17 percent of Republicans and 12 percent of Democrats, per the poll.

Overall, 74 percent of Americans said the presidential election is extremely or very important for the future of democracy. Roughly 82 percent said the election is extremely or very important for the economy, 70 percent said immigration and 49 percent said climate change.

This comes as both Democrats and Republicans have warned that democracy is at stake if their opponent wins November’s election. President Biden has repeatedly cast former President Trump as a threat to democracy, but the former president said he’s the “opposite” of a threat. 

Biden, who dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Vice President Harris to run in his place, said in a new interview that he's "not at all confident" there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses the election. Harris, and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) were certified to top the Democratic ticket earlier this week.

Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) accepted the GOP nod last month at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

In The Hill/Decision Desk HQ's aggregate of national polls, Harris and the former president are neck and neck — 47.4 percent to 47.3 percent, respectively.

The poll was conducted July 25-29 among 1,143 U.S. adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.