Randomized trial evaluates public confidence in election results based on county election administration quality, indicating improvements for election losers.
Key Points
This study examines how high-quality county election administration affects public confidence in US elections, especially among election losers.
Evaluated data from the Survey of the Performance of American Elections (2012-2022).
Used the new County Election Administration index (Ritter & Tolbert, 2024).
Applied multi-level modeling to assess CEA's impact on public confidence among winners and losers.
Higher quality county election administration is associated with increased public confidence in election results.
Confidence gap between election losers and winners significantly narrows with improved CEA quality.