Experimental Evaluation of Best Practices for Building Trust in Elections

• In Event: Electoral Integrity and Election Denial in the United States

Abstract

Based on a research-practice partnership with election officials in California, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas, we designed five surveys and survey experiments that we fielded after the 2022 midterm elections. The experiments tested the impact of the actual public information campaign videos and television appearances that election officials used during the 2022 cycle to explain the protections in place to secure elections. Through this partnership, we coordinated with the elections administrators on research question, project specification, and messaging. We fielded surveys after the 2022 American midterm election on voter trust in elections including experimental evaluation of different messages. The descriptive and experimental results provide evidence of how voter experiences are changing in the current election informational environment, on best practices to combat election misinformation, and concrete tools that states and localities can use to build trust in elections going forward.

Authors

• Thad Kousser, University of California, San Diego

• Seth J. Hill, University of California, San Diego

• Mindy Romero, USC

• Mackenzie Lockhart, Yale University

• Jennifer Gaudette, UC Riverside