• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up

Lauren Prather

    FollowUnfollowFollowing

    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.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    election integrity

    Join an Upcoming Event

    View All Events
    Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
    Confirm that you are not a bot.
    ×
    Follow
    Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
    Confirm that you are not a bot.
    ×
    Follow

    Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

    The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

    Contribute
    Contributors

    Grand Canyon gap in America today

    Dave Anderson

    Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

    Stephen E. Herbits

    Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

    Steve Corbin

    To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

    Julio A. Alicea

    Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

    Sarah K. Burke

    Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

    Our Staff
    latest News

    America’s greatest resource- Education

    William Natbony
    3h

    The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

    Ken Powley
    3h

    There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

    Priya Iyer
    28 September

    Advancing human rights, worldwide

    Leland R. Beaumont
    28 September

    How statelessness gambles with the lives of American families

    Samantha Sitterly
    27 September

    Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

    Our Staff
    27 September
    Videos
    Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

    Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

    Our Staff
    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Our Staff
    Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

    Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

    Our Staff
    Video: The history of Labor Day

    Video: The history of Labor Day

    Our Staff
    Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

    Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

    Our Staff
    Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

    Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

    Our Staff
    Podcasts

    Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

    Our Staff
    27 September

    Podcast: All politics is local

    Our Staff
    22 September

    Podcast: How states hold fair elections

    Our Staff
    14 September

    Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

    Debilyn Molineaux
    David Riordan
    12 September
    Recommended
    America’s greatest resource- Education

    America’s greatest resource- Education

    Big Picture
    Grand Canyon gap in America today

    Grand Canyon gap in America today

    Elections
    The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

    The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

    Big Picture
    There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

    There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

    Big Picture
    Advancing human rights, worldwide

    Advancing human rights, worldwide

    Big Picture
    Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

    Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

    Big Picture