Can a Public Information Campaign Restore Trust in American Elections?

• In Event: Trust and Confidence in Elections and Election Administration

Abstract

In the wake of unsubstantiated fraud claims following the 2020 presidential contest, election officials across the country have worked to explain to the public the protections that safeguard the integrity of elections in order to restore faith in democracy. Our academic team collaborated with nonpartisan election officials in Texas, Georgia, Colorado, and Los Angeles County to design a set of national, state, and county surveys testing the impact of their public information efforts. We showed survey respondents examples of the actual videos that election officials have produced during this election cycle. We find that: 1. Respondents in our national survey who watched a video from Virginia or Arizona that explained who election officials are or what steps they take to protect elections became more trusting in the accuracy and integrity of elections in other states and less likely to agree that specific types of fraud are common. 2. In each of our state and county surveys, we found that at least one of the two videos explaining elections in that state increased respondents’ trust in their own state’s elections. 3. These effects did not vary by party, with Republicans and independents no less responsive to the public information messages than Democrats.

Author

• Thad Kousser, University of California, San Diego