Americans say they are losing faith in how elections are run. At the same time, President Donald Trump is trying to turn that doubt into leverage on Capitol Hill, with one big question hanging over November: what, exactly, do voters think is being rigged?
What You Should Know
A PBS News, NPR, and Marist poll found that two-thirds of Americans are confident their state or local government will run a fair and accurate election. That share is down 10 points from October 2024 and is the lowest since Marist began asking in 2020.
The survey, conducted March 2nd to 4th, 2026, comes as states prepare for midterm elections and as Trump demands a sweeping rewrite of federal voting rules. The poll questioned 1,591 U.S. adults and also surveyed registered voters, according to PBS NewsHour.
The Confidence Drop Has a Partisan Fingerprint
The headline number is grim, but the movement is even more telling. Democrats and independents drove the decline, down 16 points and 11 points, while Republicans were 3 points more confident, within the poll’s margin of error.
When Americans were asked about the biggest threat to election safety and accuracy, they did not line up behind a single villain: 33% picked voter fraud, 26% picked misleading information, and 24% picked voter suppression. The poll also showed lower confidence among Black and Latino respondents than among white respondents, a gap that Marist’s Lee Miringoff linked to history and political spotlighting.
Trump’s SAVE Act Strategy Runs Into the Polls’ Math
Trump has threatened to hold up legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. He has framed it as a fraud-fighting measure with broad public support, even as experts have long described noncitizen voting in federal elections as rare and already illegal.
The poll, however, shows the public tugged in two directions. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents said it is more important to make sure everyone who wants to vote can do so, while 41% said their bigger concern is making sure no one votes who is not eligible.
Another warning sign for any big new paperwork rule is practical, not ideological. The poll found 58% of Americans are concerned that voters will show up and be told they are not eligible, a jump from January 2020, with younger adults far more worried than seniors. Election administrator Tammy Patrick told PBS NewsHour that implementation can trigger what she called “buyer’s remorse” when voters learn what documents they actually need.
Rick Hasen, who directs UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, argued the scale problem is the point. “We just do not see large hordes of noncitizens voting in the way that Donald Trump routinely describes it,” Hasen said, pointing to past reviews that found only a small number of documented cases.
Troops at the Polls and an AI Fear Both Parties Share
Beyond registration rules, Trump has floated deploying National Guard troops to monitor polling places, particularly in Democratic cities, and his former adviser Steve Bannon has talked about ICE showing up at the polls. The poll found Americans opposing National Guard deployment to polling places, 54% to 46%, with sharp partisan splits.
One area of near-consensus could shape the closing months of the campaign: 85% of Americans said it is likely AI-generated political content will spread misinformation about the elections. If confidence keeps sliding while the information environment gets noisier, the fight over rules may become a fight over whether voters believe the outcome at all.
