Nearly Half of Americans Believe Foreign Nations Already Interfered With 2020 Election, Survey Says

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Sep 18, 2020 04:06 AM EDT

The U.S. Intelligence Agency has warned that there are foreign nations trying to influence the upcoming November's presidential election.

With only a few weeks before the election, around four in ten Americans believe that a foreign government has already interfered with the 2020 presidential election, according to a survey from the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project.

The survey also found that 39 percent of Americans believe a foreign government has already interfered in the November election. Around 76 percent said it is somewhat or very likely to change the election's outcome.

"There is a deep amount of anxiety among the American public and foreign interference this time," Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, said in a report.

The survey was issued a month after an intelligence assessment was done by the National Counter-Intelligence and Security Center's chief.

The assessment found that Russia is actively trying to dimmish Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's candidacy. At the same time, China sees President Donald Trump as "unpredictable" and prefers not to win the election.

Another foreign nation trying to influence the election is Iran, who is working to undermine Trump, according to the intelligence assessment.

Among those who were part of the survey, 59 percent believe that meddling in the election was done to benefit the Republican party, as stated under the Nationscape Insights analysis.

Twenty percent believe it is aiding the Democratic Party, while 12 percent say that interference was to help both parties.

The Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project is a study designed to conduct 500,000 interviews about presidential candidates' policies during the 2020 election cycle.

The most recent poll was conducted on Sept. 3 to Sept. 9, with 6,221 participants. The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The poll also shows substantial partisan divides among those who say that foreign interference has already occurred.

Over 54 percent of Democrats say that foreign interference has already occurred, compared to 31 percent of independents and 31 percent of Republicans.

Commenting on the partisan divide, Griffin said that "we are still seeing the shadows of 2016."

"There's an element here where people's attitudes are just aligning with sort of the reality of the situation of 2016," Griffin noted.

Foreign nation interference was reported early this year. In February, a top election security official of the American intelligence community, told members of Congress that Russia favored Trump.

Meanwhile, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said there would be the continued use of covert and overt measures to influence the election.

Evanina suggested that most would stop short of tampering with voting or results.

"They may also seek to compromise our election infrastructure for a range of possible purposes, such as interfering with the voting process, stealing sensitive data, or calling into question the validity of the election results," Evanina noted.