![\"Jennifer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jennifer-gaudette.jpg\" "\\"Jennifer")
<\/p>\nElection officials can build public trust in procedures and results \u2014 even among suspicious voters who fear partisan manipulation \u2014 by creating videos that factually explain their security safeguards in simple terms.<\/p>\n
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Jennifer Gaudette<\/p>\n
Such are the findings of studies co-authored by a UC Riverside scholar, offering sound strategies for election officials to respond to false claims and conspiracy theories about election fraud and security, as well as suspicions that arise when the counting of mail-in ballots delays results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf election officials explain why a delay might occur in advance, then voters are less likely to have a negative response,\u201d said Jennifer Gaudette<\/a>, an assistant professor in the UCR School of Public Policy and co-author of the research published in the Election Law Journal<\/a>, British Journal of Political Science<\/a>, and PNAS Nexus<\/a>.<\/p>\n In their recently published Election Law Journal article, the researchers examined a challenge built into America’s decentralized election system. While states have broad authority to set their own election rules, they mostly follow the same security procedures. But voters typically know little about how elections are run in other states. Partisan distrust can fill that information gap.<\/p>\n For example, Gaudette and her colleagues found that Republicans nationwide were less likely to trust elections in heavily Democratic California, while Democrats nationwide expressed less confidence in elections in Republican-dominated Texas.<\/p>\n While the team previously established that simple, factual videos about election security could increase voters\u2019 trust in elections, they wanted to know if that same factual information could change partisan views about other states.<\/p>\n The team conducted survey experiments involving nearly 15,000 people. Participants came from a nationwide sample and samples in Texas, Georgia, Colorado and Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n Some watched videos produced by election officials explaining safeguards used to protect votes. Texans and Georgians watched messages about California elections. Colorado and Los Angeles County participants watched videos about Texas. The national sample was divided between California and Texas messages.<\/p>\n The results were significant.<\/p>\n After watching the videos, trust in elections in the targeted states increased by an average of 10 to 12.5 percentage points, and the improvement crossed party lines. Republicans became more trusting of elections in Democratic states, Democrats became more trusting of elections in Republican states, and independents also showed gains.<\/p>\n The findings suggest partisan distrust of election security isn\u2019t necessarily set in stone.<\/p>\n (Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cYou can move people on this by giving them the facts,\u201d Gaudette said.<\/p>\n A related experiment in a follow-up study suggests election officials don\u2019t need Hollywood-style production values to change minds.<\/p>\n![\"midterm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/300-gettyimages-2294899445.jpg\" "\\"midterm")
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