One thing revealed by our current crisis of democracy is the limits of survey technology to illicit preferences around abstract concepts, like "legitimacy". Questions like this are hard to ask because the answers are hard and so people use emotional reactions instead. 1/

I'm really not sure asking "is Joe Biden the legitimate president-elect of the US" tells us anything because most people have never thought about what "legitimate" means in this context - this isn't because people are dumb, just that they have other things to worry about. 2/

There is also expressive responding, where people substitute in an emotion "I don't like Joe Biden" for an answer about legitimacy because they get psychological satisfaction from telling the surveyor they don't like Joe Biden 3/

The take-away from this is that we need to be cautious in saying that the mass public is deciding legitimacy based on partisanship, when for a large portion of people we are just measuring their like or dislike for a candidate. 4/

Survey research is hard. There is probably a more appropriate question, but I'm not sure what it is...maybe...5/

"Many people like and dislike the people who become President for many reasons. Putting aside your personal feelings about Joe Biden, the US Constitution says the person winning a majority of Electoral Votes becomes President. Did Joe Biden win a majority of Electoral Votes?" 6/