Resources

Study examining what election officials can do to counteract distrust during delays in vote-counting.

Academic paper examining how race and state policies impact voter trust and confience in electoral systems.

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 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.

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.

After discussions with election officials from Los Angeles County, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas, this project used messaging experiments with nearly 8,500 Americans following the 2022 U.S. midterm elections to measure the impact on trust. It found that state and local election officials can be strongly effective at increasing trust in their own state elections.

Academic paper examining the use of audits following elections to improve voter confidence.

After discussions with election officials from Los Angeles County, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas, this project used messaging experiments with nearly 8,500 Americans following the 2022 U.S. midterm elections to measure the impact on trust. It found that state and local election officials can be strongly effective at increasing trust in their own state elections.

This paper argues state investment in voter education strengthens voter confidence by improving voter experiences and creating a culture of voter education, both of which facilitate transparency in elections.

This academic article studies how messages from political elites influence public confidence in elections and acceptance of democratic norms. 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 adds evidence on one of the recurring drivers of election trust: experience, information, partisanship, security, or institutional performance.

Partisan actors in the United States have recently politicized trust in election administration. This paper suggests solutions for election officials to rebuild trust in democratic processes.

Using a nationwide survey experiment conducted after the 2018 midterm elections this research shows that exposure to claims of voter fraud reduces confidence in electoral integrity, though not support for democracy itself.