Gallup polls conducted after the 2000 election show almost a third of Al Gore voters refused to accept Bush as the legitimate president just one month before his inauguration, and an overwhelming majority of Democrats refused to say Bush had won fairly.
Post-election Gallup polling shows 74 percent of Gore voters said it was”unfair” that Bush won the electoral college without winning the popular vote.
Almost 70 percent of African-Americans said they felt “cheated” by the election’s outcome, and 40 percent said they would not accept Bush as the legitimate president. Just seven percent of African-Americans said Bush won “fair and square.”
Among all Gore voters, 31 percent said Bush “stole” the election. That rate rose to 50 percent among African-American voters. 49 percent of Democrats said Bush “Won on a technicality.” Just 18 percent of Democrats said that Bush “won fair and square.”
Gallup polling conducted from December 15-17, 2000 — barely a month before Bush’s inauguration — showed that 30 percent of Gore’s voters still refused to accept Bush as a legitimate president.
Exactly half of Gore voters said the entire election process had been permanently harmed by Bush’s victory.
More recently, Republican nominee Donald Trump has claimed that the election is going to be “rigged” by pro-Hillary Clinton forces. (RELATED: Second O’Keefe Video Shows Dem Operative Boasting About Voter Fraud)
Members of Trump’s inner circle have tried to justify Mr. Trump’s claims by pointing out Gore’s refusal to accept the election results in 2000. (RELATED: Al Gore Didn’t Automatically Accept Results Of 2000 Election, Top Trump Supporters Point Out)
“Peaceful transfer of power is important, but the accuracy of the election — as Al Gore pointed out — is even more important,” Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.
Critics, however, argue that Trump is undermining democracy by refusing to accept the election results before they happen.