How much trust do you have in State Election Officials?

Background

Trust in state election officials has become one of the most closely watched measures of democratic health in the United States. According to a 2025 survey by the States United Democracy Center, Americans were most likely to trust their local election officials a great deal or fair amount at 60 percent, compared to 53 percent who said the same about their state's secretary of state. Pew Research Center found in 2024 that about 77 percent of voters expressed at least some confidence in state officials who run elections, though that confidence varied sharply by party. More recently, a February 2026 national survey from the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at UC San Diego found that only 60 percent of respondents said they are confident votes will be counted accurately nationwide in the 2026 midterms, a 17-point drop from the 77 percent who felt that way just after the 2024 presidential election. This decline cut across all political affiliations, with trust falling 17 points among Republicans, 13 points among Democrats, and 16 points among independents.

Those who express confidence in state election officials point to the decentralized structure of American elections, where the National Association of Secretaries of State notes that 40 secretaries of state serve as their state's chief election official, working continuously to secure and administer voting. Research from the MIT Election Lab has found that voters tend to be more confident when they have positive direct experiences at polling places and when election monitoring is conducted by independent observers. On the other side, critics raise concerns about partisan influence, with Pew Research finding that voters' confidence is heavily shaped by whether their preferred candidate wins, a dynamic researchers call the winner-loser gap. The Brennan Center for Justice's 2026 survey of local election officials found that 38 percent reported being threatened, harassed, or abused, and 74 percent expressed concern about online misinformation making their work harder. Issue One reported that 50 percent of chief local election officials in Western states left their jobs between November 2020 and November 2025, often citing threats and burnout.

The stakes of this debate extend well beyond opinion polls. When trust in election officials erodes, it can discourage voter participation and make it harder to recruit and retain qualified administrators heading into the 2026 midterms. The UC San Diego survey also found that emerging issues like expectations of ICE officers at polling places could further lower confidence among minority communities. Meanwhile, the Brennan Center found that 80 percent of election officials say their budgets need to grow to meet security and administration needs over the next five years. Whether trust in state election officials stabilizes or continues to decline may shape not just how Americans vote, but whether they believe their votes count at all.