According to a new opinion poll by Reuters/Ipsos, 52% of Republicans agreed that Trump "rightfully won" the election, with only 29% saying Biden had rightfully won.

Asked why, Republicans were much more concerned than others that state vote counters had tipped the result toward Biden: 68% of Republicans said they were concerned that the election was "rigged," while only 16% of Democrats and one-third of independents were similarly worried.

Whatever your own opinion about the legitimacy of this election's outcome, it's a little unnerving to see just how low confidence in the election process has sunk. The fact that we don't know for sure seems kinda, ya know, bad for democracy.

The whole thing feels like a lose-lose scenario. On the one hand, if massive voter fraud is uncovered, we'll never believe the results of an election ever again. But on the other hand, even if it isn't proven conclusively that widespread fraud happened, the public trust in the system is so far eroded I just don't see how we come back from it.

The poll also found that the increased distrust in the election process is not limited to Republicans. Only just over half of all respondents could confidently say they believed the election process was "legitimate and accurate."

Altogether, 55% of adults in the United States said they believed the Nov. 3 presidential election was "legitimate and accurate," which is down 7 points from a similar poll that ran shortly after the 2016 election. The 28% who said they thought the election was "the result of illegal voting or election rigging" is up 12 points from four years ago.

🤷‍♂️ It's not good, guys. It's. Just. Not. Good.