Building Trust in Elections
July 8, 2026
Thessalia Merivaki
University of California San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections
July 8, 2026
Thessalia Merivaki
University of California San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections
Key Ideas
The strength of democracy depends, in part, on public trust that elections are fair and accurate. While many influences on trust are beyond the control of election officials and policymakers, the research below identifies practical steps they can take to strengthen trust in the election process. This guide briefly summarizes how researchers have measured trust in elections and the most important high-level findings of that research.
Building Trust in Elections: Key Ideas examines different ways to think about and measure trust in elections, including:
- How Trust is Measured
- What Research Finds
Common Questions
Building Trust in Elections: Common Questions provides quick answers to common questions we often hear from election officials, policymakers, the media, and the public about trust and confidence in elections.
Read up on all our common questions here
Or, skim a few of the most frequently asked questions below:
The field of political science has a rich history of studying trust in elections and the political system. Unfortunately, until recently, little of this research has directly addressed actions that election officials or policymakers can take to influence election trust. However, that is rapidly changing.
Research has found three major factors that influence voter trust:
- The winner/loser effect. The biggest influence on voter trust is who wins elections. Voters tend to trust elections more when their candidates win; trust declines when their candidates lose. This factor is outside the control of election officials, but it is important to keep it in mind when taking actions that are within the control of policy and practice.
- The voter experience. Voters who have had bad experiences voting—long lines, late-arriving mail ballots, surly poll workers, etc.—report less trust in elections. Thus, creating a positive experience for voters is not only a nice thing to do, but it also improves how people evaluate the election overall.
- Trusted voices. Few voters pay close attention to election administration beyond their direct experience and rely on trusted leaders to help evaluate the process. Election officials themselves are trusted voices, but so, too, are political and civic leaders.
Even though voter trust can be influenced by factors outside the control of election officials, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of numerous strategies:
- Maintain a good voter experience. Voters generalize from their own experience to judge how well elections are run overall. Factors such as wait times, ballot design, and poll worker competence influence how much voters trust elections.
- Communicate directly with the public through the media. Communicating with the public can be daunting to election officials who were not trained in modern communications. Fortunately, organizations such as the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and The Elections Group offer free, evidence-based tools for election officials.
- Conduct facility tours. Election office tours can be conducted effectively to educate interested voters about the details of election administration. Research conducted through a partnership between Maricopa County, Arizona and the University of California, San Diego showed that both in-person and virtual tours increased trust in the process among participants.
- Adopt administrative practices that describe the process. Describing obscure aspects of election administration may increase trust, although the research is in its early stages. Early-stage research suggests that ballot-tracking tools help boost voter confidence in the process. Experimental studies indicate that voters trust elections when informed of the results of post-election audits.
Election reform is frequently justified to increase trust in elections. Reforms are often necessary to increase the security, convenience, and accuracy of elections, but research has regularly shown that reforms themselves rarely change the public’s trust in how elections are conducted. Two major factors are in play here:
- The low salience of election administration. Election administration is rarely top of mind for Americans. They may become more interested when there is a major controversy or political parties make them top issues, but these occurrences are rare. An exit poll conducted in 2024 reported that 34% of respondents listed “the state of democracy” as the issue that mattered most in deciding how to vote for president, but the issue, as stated, is too general to associate with any particular election reform issue.
- Partisan lenses. Because election conduct is low-salience and technical, the mass public relies on trusted political actors for guidance about how to judge changes to how elections are conducted. If both parties agree to the change, it is unlikely to be noticed by many members of the public. If the parties disagree, just over half the population will be pleased with the change, while the other half will charge the majority with being unfair. The result is that hotly contested questions of election administration tend to polarize trust rather than to move it strongly in one direction or the other.
Research Studies
Building Trust in Elections: Research Studies provides short summaries from academics and election officials who have worked hard to investigate the effectiveness of different strategies for building trust in elections. Explore the resources directly below, or
Read our expanded research guide.
Additional resources on building voter trust can be found in the Resource Hub.
This one-pager provides a brief overview of a study conducted on how tours of the Maricopa County, AZ election facility increased trust among tour participants.
Former Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer outlines a potential solution to improving voter trust by offering election facility tours.
One-pager examining the benefits and shortcomings using videos to increase trust among voters.
Article explaining a study investigating how videos were used to restore voter trust in different locations across the country.
One-pager explaining the results of a study where voters were informed election results would be available after a multi-day process, and examining solutions from that study to improve voter trust in vote counting measures.
Academic paper examining the use of audits following elections to improve voter confidence.
Report summarizing ways election officials can use public information campaigns to restore voter trust in election administration.
Report offering solutions on how public information campaigns by state election officials could mitigate polarized trust in election integrity.
Article summarizing how election officials can use "prebunking" to increase voter trust and confidence through a comparative analysis of elections in the United States and Brazil.
Study investigating how to counter misinformation about voting and election fraud using a comparitive study between the United States and Brazil.
Article summarizing how short-form, low-budget vertical videos can be used by election officials to improve voter trust.
Next Guide
Improving the In-Person Voting Experience