50% of Republicans would not recognize Clinton if she won the election.

50% of Republican party members surveyed stated they do not recognize Hillary Clinton as President of the United States.

Presidential candidates Donald Trump, Republican (left), and Hillary Clinton, Democratic. Photo: Reuters.

Only half of the Republicans surveyed would accept Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, as president. If Clinton wins, 70% believe it will be due to illegal or rigged voting, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on October 21.

Conversely, 7 out of 10 Democrats surveyed said they would recognize the victory of Republican Donald Trump, while less than 50% believed he won through a rigged election.

The survey was conducted online with 1,192 American adults from October 17 to 21. The results have a margin of error of 3.3%. The margin of error for Democrats and Republicans is 5.1% and 5.5%, respectively.

The survey comes after Trump repeatedly accused the media and political organizations of rigging the election against him. He also encouraged supporters to prevent illegal voters from casting their ballots on Election Day, November 8th.

Clinton said she accepted the election results, while Trump stated he would only recognize them if he won. Eight out of ten Republicans expressed concerns about the accuracy of the vote count. The figure for Democrats was six out of ten.

"Republicans are more worried about everything than Democrats," Reuters quoted Lonna Atkeson, a professor at the University of New Mexico and head of the Center for Voting, Elections and Democracy, as saying.

According to Atkeson, the level of concern and distrust in the electoral system, particularly among Republicans, is unprecedented.

"I've never seen an election like this. Certainly not in modern history," she said, noting that the difference was in Trump. "It's the candidate effect."

She argued that a lack of trust is very dangerous. Losing faith in the government is one thing, losing faith in the electoral process is another. "Then the entirety of American democracy will be called into question," she said.