This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Election officials can build public trust in procedures and results—even among suspicious voters who fear partisan manipulation—by creating videos that factually explain their security safeguards in simple terms. These are the findings of studies co-authored by a UC Riverside scholar, offering strategies for election officials to respond to false claims and conspiracy theories about election fraud and security, as well as suspicions that arise when mail-in ballot counting delays results.
"If election officials explain why a delay might occur in advance, then voters are less likely to have a negative response," said Jennifer Gaudette, an assistant professor in the UCR School of Public Policy and co-author of recent research published in the Election Law Journal. A 2025 study was published in the British Journal of Political Science, and the 2024 study was published in PNAS Nexus. In the most recent 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.
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. While the team previously established that simple, factual videos about election security could increase voters' trust in elections, they wanted to know whether that same factual information could change partisan views about other states. 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. 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. 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.
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