Large Majority of Voters Want 2016 Loser to Accept Election Results

More than two-thirds of American voters say the loser of the 2016 race for the White House should accept the election results in November, according to a new poll conducted after the final presidential debate in which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump refused to say whether he would concede a loss to Hillary Clinton.

Sixty-eight percent of voters say that whoever loses on Election Day should accept the election results, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult survey released Friday. Only 14 percent of voters said they thought the loser should challenge the results.

In recent weeks, as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric about a "rigged" election and raising the specter of voter fraud, the media has pressed the New York businessman and his camp as to whether or not he will accept the election results, should he lose.

During Wednesday's third and final presidential debate, when asked whether he would concede if he loses, Trump said, "I will look at it at the time," adding, "I will keep you in suspense."

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway attempted to soften his comments the next morning, saying, "What Donald Trump has said, over time, if you take all of his statements together, he has said that he will respect the results of the election."

Also on Thursday, the GOP presidential nominee took it a step further, quipping: "I will totally accept the result of this great and historic presidential election — If I win."

Prominent Democrats — and some Republicans — have delivered sharp rebukes against Trump over his stance on one of the pillars of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.

While campaigning for Clinton in Arizona on Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama hit Trump for threatening to keep Americans "in suspense."

“When a presidential candidate threatens to ignore our voices and reject the outcome of this election, he is threatening the very idea of America itself,” Obama said during a campaign rally in Phoenix. “We cannot stand for that. You do not keep American democracy in suspense."

President Barack Obama, also campaigning for Clinton on Thursday, said that Trump's talk of a rigged election is "not a joking matter."

“This is more than just the usual standard lie,” Obama said in Miami. “Because when you suggest rigging or fraud without a shred of evidence, when last night, at the debate, Trump becomes the first major party nominee in American history to suggest that he will not concede despite losing the vote and then says today that he will accept the results if he wins — that is not a joking matter.”

Earlier this week, in another Politico/Morning Consult poll, 41 percent of voters said that Trump could lose the election because of voter fraud. However, there is a strong partisan divide: 73 percent of Republicans think the election could be "stolen," while just 17 percent of Democrats agree with the prospect of voter fraud that would determine the outcome of the election.

Trump has floated for months the idea of voter fraud as the only plausible reason for his defeat in November, but he has ramped up the rhetoric in recent weeks as it becomes increasingly clear that voters are siding with Clinton in polling.

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 48.5 percent support compared to 42.2 percent for the New York businessman, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll surveyed a pool of 1,598 registered voters and 1,395 likely voters between Oct. 19-20. The margin of error is 3 percent.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons