This Washington Post-ABC News poll by telephone November 9-11, 2016 among a random
national sample of 865 adults, including users of both conventional and cellular
phones. The results from the full survey have a margin of sampling error of plus or
minus four percentage points. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS of
Media, Pa.
(Full methodological details appended at the end.)
*= less than 0.5 percent
1. Do you accept the election of Donald Trump as legitimate, or do you think Donald
Trump is not the legitimate winner? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?

11/11/16

-------Legitimate-------NET
Strongly
Somewhat
74
58
16

-----Not legitimate-----NET
Somewhat
Strongly
18
5
14

Don’t know
8

Compare to 11/5/16:
(ASKED OF LIKELY VOTERS) Regardless of whom you support, are you prepared to accept
the outcome of the election as legitimate, or are you not prepared to do that at this
time?
Depends
Prepared
Not prepared
(vol.)
No opinion
11/5/16 LV
79
15
3
3
*** END ***
METHODOLOGICAL DETAILS
This poll was jointly sponsored and funded by The Washington Post and ABC News. The
poll is a random sample adults of the United States, including interviews in English
and Spanish. This questionnaire was administered with the exact questions in the exact
order as appears in this document unless otherwise noted. These questions were part of
an “omnibus” survey in which other questions were asked before or after these
question.
A dual frame landline and cellular phone telephone sample was generated using Random
Digit Dialing procedures. Interviewers called landlines cellular phone numbers, first
requesting to speak with the youngest adult male or female at home. The final sample
included 367 interviews completed on landlines and 498 interviews completed via
cellular phones, including 295 interviews with adults in cell phone-only households.
This survey uses statistical weighting procedures to account for differential chances
of being selected due to landline and cellular phone access and household size.
Weighting also corrects for deviations in the survey sample from known population
characteristics, which helps correct for differential survey participation and random
variation in samples.
The overall adult sample is weighted using a raking procedure to match the demographic
makeup of the population by sex, region, age, education, race/ethnicity, marital
status, and population density according to Census estimates. The sample is also
weighted to match phone estimates of the share of the population who are cell phoneonly, landline-only and mixed user populations according to the National Health
Interview Survey.
All error margins have been adjusted to account for the survey’s design effect, which
is 1.4 for this survey. The design effect is a factor representing the survey’s

 deviation from a simple random sample, and takes into account decreases in precision
due to sample design and weighting procedures. Surveys that do not incorporate a
design effect overstate their precision.
Contact polls@washpost.com for further information about how The Washington Post
conducts polls.
The Washington Post is a charter member of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, which
recognizes organizations that disclose key methodological details on the research they
produce.