Poll: Majority of Americans believe Russian hacking did not impact election outcome

According to a new poll out by CNN/ORC, a surprising number of Americans believe that while the Russian hacking did happen, it didn't really effect the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections much.

Overall, nearly 8-in-10 say they have been closely following news about Russia's attempts to influence the US presidential election last year, including 84% of Democrats, 75% of independents and 72% of Republicans. But the partisan agreement ends there.

Majorities say that if the assessment were to prove true, these attempts would be a crisis or major problem for the US (65% say so), and that the outcome of the election would have been the same regardless of the information released (58% say that). Further, 56% say that despite this situation, the US ought to continue its efforts to improve relations with Russia rather than take strong economic and diplomatic steps against Russia.

According to the poll, 43 percent believe that it is extremely likely or very likely that the intelligence community's assessment of the Russian hacking is accurate, with 32 percent saying it is somewhat likely. Only 24 percent think it likely didn't happen.

Unsurprisingly, the view that the hacking effected the elections are split along partisan lines, with 65 percent of democrats believing it ruined Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's chances, versus only 10 percent of Republicans who would agree with that view.