Resources

This issue brief explains the distinct purposes of audits and recounts and how both can contribute to confidence in election outcomes.

This research finds that Black and Native Americans have lower levels of trust in elections when compared to white Americans. Asian Americans are not statistically unlike whites in their level of trust, and the trust gap that exists for Latines is partially explainable by demographic characteristics such as education and income.

Using a preregistered survey experiment of nearly 10,000 Americans, this article shows that informing voters about longer-than-expected vote counting time induces a large, significant decrease in trust in the election. However, viewing a “prebunking” video in advance of being informed of the delay in results more than makes up for the delay-induced decrease in election trust.

This academic article examines how unsupported fraud claims or misperceptions about voting affect confidence in election outcomes and perceived legitimacy. It is relevant to the dataset because it connects election rules, information environments, or administrative performance to public confidence and perceived legitimacy. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

This NCSL resource summarizes state election policy, administrative practices, or public communication guidance for lawmakers seeking to improve accuracy and confidence. It is relevant because direct voter experiences—such as wait times, poll-worker interactions, and access to services—shape confidence in election administration. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

This Pew Research Center brief reports public-opinion findings relevant to election confidence, information trust, partisanship, or expectations about the 2024 election cycle. It is relevant because beliefs about fraud and exposure to misleading claims are central mechanisms through which confidence in election outcomes rises or falls. For this dataset, it helps capture the most recent post-2020 trust environment and the continuing effects of election denial, security concerns, and polarization.

This paper examines the efficacy of post-election edits in bolstering voter confidence and whether certain aspects of audits have greater impacts than others. Authors find that how an audit is conducted is more important than what an audit finds in influencing voter evaluations of election results.

Using Michigan's voter purge database from 2014 to 2018, this analysis finds that more Democratic leaning areas, denser/more urban areas, and areas with more Black residents had higher purge rates. Notably, while these mediation effects were significant, racial composition and median income (i.e. more black and poorer communities) remained a significant factor in voter purge rates.

Even before the 2020 election, this reseach finds that voter turnout across the states is consistently higher in every general election over the past decade in states with greater shares of overall ballots cast by mail. Drawing on turnout data from the 2012-2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Cooperative Election Study (CES), authors find states with greater usage of mail voting experience higher overall voter turnout.

In this paper, authors examine ballot tracking use, local election official communication related to
ballot tracking options, how ballot tracking impacts ballot rejection, and the impact of ballot
tracking on voters’ information levels and attitudes about election integrity.

The analysis implies election workers are more likely to wrongly reject valid ballots for purported signature mismatch than to correctly reject invalidly signed returns. On the other hand, research on election workers as problem-solvers suggests they may try to minimize the wrongful rejection of ballots.

While rejected mail ballots could over- or underestimate lost votes, a case study of Pennsylvania’s 2022 general election reveals at least 47% more lost votes than rejected mail ballots.