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Lauren Prather

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    Healthy democracy requires trust – these 3 things could start to restore voters’ declining faith in elections

    Sarah Bush
    Lauren Prather
    December 02, 2022
    Maricopa County ballots

    Election workers sort ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Nov. 9 in Phoenix.

    John Moore/Getty Images

    Bush is an associate professor of political science at Yale University. Prather is an associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego.

    The 2022 U.S. midterm elections ran relatively smoothly and faced few consequential accusations of fraud or mismanagement. Yet many Americans don’t trust this essential element of a democracy.

    It’s dangerous for peace and stability when the public doubts democratic elections. Disastrous events like the insurrection by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 make that clear.

    But there are subtler effects of such doubt. Trump isn’t the only instigator of this distrust, which he sowed with his false assertions that the 2020 presidential vote was “rigged” and that he was the legitimate winner of the election.

    Study after study – in both the U.S. and around the world – make clear that trust in elections predicts whether a person votes and decides to participate in politics in other ways, like attending peaceful demonstrations or even discussing politics. If people don’t think that elections are fair, then they don’t see the point in taking the steps that maintain democracy.

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