About 3.5 percent of Americans would defect from their favorite political candidate if that person does something that breaks democratic norms, a new study published in the American Political Science Review from Yale University's Matthew Graham and Milan Svolik found. That's a pretty small amount for a country where the traditional answer to the question of whether democracy is a good thing is almost certainly a yes, Svolik told The Atlantic.
Graham and Svolik achieved their results after asking 1,691 people if they would turn on a democracy-bashing candidate they otherwise found to represent their own opinions on most political matters, but the 3.5 percent figure, it turns out, is actually backed by a real-life example, as well. In 2017, a day before Montana's congressional election, Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mt.) assaulted a journalist after growing irritated with his questioning. Voters who took to the polls the next day would likely have been aware of the incident, while those who mailed in their ballots would have done so before the anti-democratic action took place, The Atlantic notes. Gianforte, who won the election, received about 3.6 percent fewer in-person votes, which is right in line with the Yale study.
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