Why Americans’ support for democratic values may not protect democracy in practice

Former President Trump’s claims that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud, and the increasing number of states enacting voter restrictions have led to questions about the state of democracy in the US. In new research, Peter Hanson, Danielle Lussier, and Georgia Rawhouser-Mylet find that in general, support for democratic values in the US is robust. But they also determine that Americans who believe that the 2020 election outcome was fraudulent were much more likely to support restrictions on voting such as voter ID measures and eliminating vote by mail and early voting.