Eight in Ten Americans to Accept Bush as "Legitimate" President

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Although a significant minority of Americans disagree with the Supreme Court in its Tuesday decision that effectively stopped the vote recount in Florida and gave the presidency to George W. Bush, the vast majority say they will accept Bush as the "legitimate" president when he is inaugurated in January. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Wednesday evening, before the national addresses by Al Gore and George W. Bush, the public tends to give the benefit of the doubt to the Supreme Court, with small majorities saying the decision was fair and that the justices in the majority based their decisions mostly on the merits of the case rather than on their own personal desires to see Bush as president. But the poll also shows that there are major divisions among groups of Americans -- especially between Gore and Bush supporters, but also between the young and the old, between women and men, and among different regions of the country.

Americans show slight majority support for the Supreme Court in its current decision, but much wider support for the Court in general and for the ultimate legitimacy of the election process. Overall, 52% of Americans agree with the Court decision to stop the vote recount in Florida, while 42% disagree. By a slightly larger margin, Americans also say the decision was fair (54%) rather than unfair (38%), and that the five justices in the majority were influenced mostly by the legal merits of the case (54%) rather than their personal feelings about Bush (35%).

When it comes to more general statements about the Court, Americans strongly reject the notion -- by 66% to 30% -- that the current decision will cause them to lose confidence in the Court. (However, among Americans who disagree with the decision, 62% say they have lost confidence.) And Americans show very strong support for the electoral system, when they indicate by 80% to 18% that they will accept Bush as the "legitimate" president, despite all of the challenges to the system, and despite the fact that if they had to vote today, the Americans interviewed on Wednesday night would give the nod to Gore by a 47% to 44% margin.

Major Divisions Among Americans
The largest division in opinion on the Supreme Court decision is found between Bush supporters and Gore supporters, with the former agreeing with the Supreme Court decision by a 93% to 4% margin, and the latter disagreeing by a still huge, but slightly lower 81% to 13% margin. This fundamental partisan disagreement is not surprising; Gore himself said in his concession speech on Wednesday night that he strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court's reasoning. The majority of both Gore and Bush supporters apparently are not intense in their feelings about the outcome of the election, however. Respondents were asked to choose among four adjectives to describe their feelings about the fact that Bush won. A majority of both Gore supporters and Bush supporters describe their feelings using the more moderate adjectives "disappointed" and "pleased" rather than the more extreme adjectives "angry" and "thrilled." Twenty-two percent of Gore supporters say they are "angry" and 66% say they are "disappointed," while just 33% of Bush supporters are "thrilled" and 63% are "pleased."

There are also differences in reaction to the decision by age, gender and region -- for the most part reflecting the differences in support for the two candidates found during the campaign. Americans under 50 agree with the Court's decision by a 20-point margin (56% to 36%), while older people take the opposite point of view by a 7-point margin (51% to 44%). Men and women disagree about the Court's decision, as they disagree about the presidential candidates, with men favoring the decision by 21 points and women evenly divided. Finally, the largest regional differences are found between the South and East, with Southerners supporting the decision by 60% to 38%, and Easterners opposing the decision by 49% to 45%.

Despite these differences among groups on the Supreme Court's decision, majorities of all groups say they will accept Bush as the legitimate president. Even Gore supporters express this opinion, by 61% to 36%.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with -- 633 -- national adults, aged 18+, conducted December 13, 2000. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Results based on the subsample of -- 302 -- Gore supporters have a margin of sampling error of ±6 percentage points.

Results based on the subsample of -- 278 -- Bush supporters have a margin of sampling error of ±6 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Polls conducted entirely in one day, such as this one, are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days.

As you may know, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a decision last night which effectively ended the vote recount in Florida, meaning that George W. Bush will be the next president.

Do you agree or disagree with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision?

 

	Agree	Disagree	No opinion
	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	52	42	6
Gore "voters"	13	81	6
Bush "voters"	93	4	3

Do you think the U.S. Supreme Court was fair or unfair in deciding this case?

 

	Fair	Unfair	DEPENDS (vol.)	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	54	38	1	7
Gore "voters"	17	74	2	8
Bush "voters"	94	4	*	2

Do you think the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to end the recount in Florida did so -- [ROTATED: mostly based on the legal merits of the case (or) mostly based on their own desire to have Bush as the next president]?

 

	Legal merits of the case	Bush as next president	BOTH/ NEITHER (vol.)		No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	54	35	3	8
Gore "voters"	22	65	3	10
Bush "voters"	87	6	2	5

Does this decision make you lose confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, or does it not have an effect on your view of the Court?

 

	Yes, lose confidence	No, no effect	No opinion
	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	30	66	4
Gore "voters"	54	39	7
Bush "voters"	5	93	2

Which of the following best describes your feelings about the fact that George W. Bush will be the next president -- [ROTATED: thrilled, pleased, disappointed, (or) angry]?

 

	Thrilled	Pleased	Disappointed		Angry	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	15	33	34	11		7
Gore "voters"	0	9	66	22		3
Bush "voters"	33	63	1	*		3

If George W. Bush is declared the winner and is inaugurated next January, would you accept him as the legitimate president, or not?

 

	Yes, accept	No, not accept	No opinion
	%	%	%
National Adults
2000 Dec 13	80	18	2
2000 Dec 2-4	85	14	1
2000 Nov 26-27	84	15	1
2000 Nov 19	86	13	1
2000 Nov 11-12	79	19	2
Gore "voters"
2000 Dec 13	61	36	3
Gore supporters
2000 Dec 2-4	68	31	1
2000 Nov 26-27	65	33	2
2000 Nov 19	72	26	2
2000 Nov 11-12	61	36	3
Bush "voters"
2000 Dec 13	99	1	*
Bush supporters
2000 Dec 2-4	100	*	0
2000 Nov 26-27	100	*	0
2000 Nov 19	98	2	0
2000 Nov 11-12	97	1	2

In his speech tonight, Al Gore is likely to accept the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court and acknowledge that George W. Bush will be the next president, even though Gore believes he got more votes in Florida. Do you think Gore should -- [ROTATED: concede that he lost, (or should he) withdraw from the race without conceding]?

 

	Concede that he lost	Withdraw without conceding	No opinion
	%	%	%
2000 Dec 13
National adults	59	32	9
Gore "voters"	37	50	13
Bush "voters"	82	14	4

Finally, if the election for president were being held today, who would you vote for -- [ROTATED: Al Gore (or) George W. Bush]?

 

	Gore	Bush	OTHER (vol.)	No opinion
2000 Dec 13	47%	44	5	4
* Less than 0.5%
(vol.) Volunteered response