By JENNA SCHWEIKERT
Capitol News Illinois
jschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com
Trust in U.S. elections is eroding. Between skepticism about redistricting, fear about immigration agents at the polls, and unproven claims about widespread election fraud, Americans are losing confidence in the accuracy and security of their elections.
But many local election authorities say their effort to address misinformation and reassure voters is beginning to turn the tide, as they’ve seen less voter concern about election security.
Voter confidence in accurate vote counts dropped 17% across party lines in about a year, according to two nationwide polls from the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California San Diego. One poll was conducted just after the 2024 presidential election, the other in late 2025, in collaboration with UCSD’s Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research.
Although 60% of respondents indicated they did have confidence in the midterms, the survey paints a bleak picture ahead of this fall. And it was followed by headlines about the Supreme Court’s ruling weakening a key racial redistricting provision in the Voting Rights Act, the Department of Justice suing states for access to voter records and a report finding a Trump appointee encouraged the DOJ raid of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia.
This is all on the heels of President Donald Trump’s repeated, but disproven, claims of widespread voter fraud and falsified 2020 election results. Now, he’s staffed his federal administration with officials who echoed his claims in 2020 and refuse to walk them back, doubling down in some cases.
For one, Kash Patel, the embattled director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is overseeing the investigation that led to the Fulton County raid and a subpoena of Maricopa County, Arizona, records. Just last week, the administration demanded names of election officials who worked in the county during the 2020 elections.
Much like Pam Bondi, the former director of the Justice Department, Patel would not state that Joe Biden won the 2020 election in his confirmation hearing.
The Trump administration’s efforts to establish a narrative of fraud, lies and vote stealing during Biden’s presidency are not for nothing. As the UCSD poll shows, Americans of both parties have begun to doubt if they can trust upcoming elections. It makes for a tense environment as the country rockets towards the 2026 midterms and as rumors swirl around potential 2028 presidential nominees.
But across the country, and within Illinois, election authorities of both political parties say American elections are, and will stay, fair and secure. While county clerks report having an impact on their local constituencies, the disparate nature of U.S. elections — while widely considered a strength — make communicating to a broader audience a greater challenge.
Local election authority
Authority over administering elections, by federal law, is given to the states. In Illinois, elections are administered either by the 102 county clerks or the six municipal election commissions. The Illinois State Board of Elections works in an advisory capacity.
Every state has differing laws on election administration, and each Illinois county clerk conducts their elections a little differently.
Capitol News Illinois spoke with county clerks from across the state to find out more about what they do to administer a secure election and maintain voter confidence.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said many sources track deteriorating trust in elections back to 2020, but he believes it really started in 2016, the same year foreign hackers breached election databases in Illinois and Arizona.
The hackers were able to steal some voters’ information that was already publicly available. But while they accessed the voter roll, they could not access any tabulators —machines that scan each ballot and count the votes — because they are not connected to outside internet and can’t be hacked.
Still, claims of election fraud dominated the 2016 campaign trail, with Trump frequently deriding a system he called “rigged.” Post-election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein launched a recount effort for the presidential race, backed by losing Democrat Hillary Clinton, as Trump’s shock election to the presidency shook voter confidence for some.
“What we saw in 2016 at the federal level were social media campaigns that were aimed at all, not just one particular voting group,” said Matt Dietrich, public information officer at the Illinois State Board of Elections. “They were aimed at everyone, and they were basically there to sow discord among voters, to create conflict.”
But Dietrich, who handles Freedom of Information Act requests for the state elections board, said he’s also seen a substantial decrease in requests for files about election protocol and security.
“I’m optimistic that they are coming around to what we had been saying all along, which was, you never doubted this before,” Dietrich said, while encouraging maintained vigilance.
Combating misinformation
Prior to 2020, election authorities did not have to be as proactive about misinformation, but the 2016 and 2020 elections brought both political parties to “slinging mud and dirt,” Ackerman said.
“I can’t stress enough we’re not seeing this from one political party,” Ackerman said.
To combat misinformation, some clerks use social media to run voter education campaigns, while others use mailing campaigns.
“It matters for us to be able to work together across party lines,” Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, a Democrat, said. “All of my visits to other states and cities and conferences, I have found that by and large, the Democrats and Republicans are trying to do the same thing. We’re trying to run a fair, free and accessible election.”
Ammons said groups like the nonpartisan Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders, which Ackerman is a vocal member of, are also helpful in getting messaging out.
Officials at the Illinois State Board of Elections, Illinois State Police and Department of Homeland Security also monitor social media for misinformation campaigns and security threats and work with local officials to address those.
“Since about 2018 we have adopted a proactive approach of when we see it, engaging it in the public, trying to remove it as quickly as possible,” Ackerman said.
Don Gray, also a Republican, has been Sangamon County clerk for nearly 12 years and is running for his fourth term, while Ackerman is running for his third.
“We’re only as strong as the accuracy and the belief of the public that the result is clear and that it can be trusted,” Gray said.
Maintaining faith through transparency
Franklin County Clerk Paris Dunk, a Republican, said his office approaches elections with a simple goal: making sure people trust the process and understand how it works.
National narratives in the wake of the 2020 election fueled skepticism, he said, but some of that has quieted, which he credits to transparency. He said he encourages anyone with concerns to “come in and be a part of the process.”
Ammons agreed that 2020 brought an onslaught of skepticism, much of it coming from Trump: “We saw just so much more of that, and that, I think, has grown and has caused some voters to be even more hesitant or cautious than they were before.”
But letting the public witness and experience how an election is operated goes a long way in increasing trust, Gray said.
“I think the chief responsibility of the election authority is to be that advocate of exposing how we operate,” Gray said.
But when federal officials claim there is widespread fraud, county clerks must work with them as well as voters to maintain faith in the process.
“First we need to address the federal officials to make sure that they understand why their information is inaccurate,” Ackerman said. “Then we need to target also our public to make sure they have their questions answered.”
Some efforts for transparency are required by law, like public equipment tests. But some clerks also go out of their way to invite the public to engage.
Ackerman also said bipartisanship plays a big role among county clerks. In January, for example, the county clerks association held a joint news conference to inform media and voters about a recent postmarking change that would affect mail-in ballots.
In 2023, county clerks also held a series of news conferences to get ahead of election-related misinformation and claims of fraud, Dietrich said.
“The message among those local election authorities … was that, look, we are — we live in your towns. Our kids go to the same schools, you know us. If you have questions, or if you have any doubts about the security and integrity of the election system, come to us and let us explain it to you,” Dietrich said.
Some misinformation comes from confusion about jurisdictions’ different rules, Ackerman said. Voters have concerns about election-related events in Georgia or California that don’t apply in Illinois. That also makes having a national conversation about election security harder, he said.
Gray said he hears a lot of security-related concerns, many about noncitizen participation, foreign involvement, engagement and participation.
Election authorities follow strict security protocols to ensure all ballots are valid. In recent years, they have begun more voter outreach to ensure voters know and have faith in those protocols — but clerks say real fraud is rare.
Gray said he’s never really seen fraud and that most incorrect results are from errors like improper ballot marking.
“We’re human, and elections are processed by people. Errors do happen, but that doesn’t mean there’s this huge systemic effort of fraud to defraud an election,” Gray said.
Firsthand experience
Gray and Ammons recommend voters serve as election judges to see the process for themselves.
“You’ll see the controls. You’ll see the attention to detail of vetting accuracy, to ensuring accountability to our electoral system,” Gray said.
During the March 17 primary, Capitol News Illinois spoke to election judges at one Sangamon County polling place.
“Everybody, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, you’re getting both voices together and making sure things are done properly,” said Jennifer Crowder, a local resident who said serving as an election judge for the past five elections has boosted her family’s involvement.
“I see it (voting) as a very critical part of who we are,” Crowder said.
Local high school senior Josephine Oke signed up to be an election judge through her high school, along with some of her friends.
“The idea of actively participating in, like, local elections as an election judge, that really drew me in because I like being involved in my community,” Oke said.
To be an election judge, any resident can apply through their local county clerk. First-time judges attend an in-person course, while those who’ve done it previously can complete the course online.
John Brim, another Sangamon County resident, said he’s served as an election judge on and off since 1980.
“Every election is a learning experience. You learn different things, because sometimes they may tweak some of the procedures, but they’re for the better,” Brim said.
On Election Day, judges open the tabulators and check that they’re working by running a blank tape to ensure there are no previous votes cast and that the ballot is correct.
At the end of the day, the judges run the tape again, count and sort the ballots by precinct, and turn in the number of filled-out ballots and however many are left over. The number of distributed ballots is strictly monitored to prevent voting multiple times, Dietrich said.
These judges arrived at the polling place by 5 a.m. and remained there until after the polls closed at 7 p.m., leaving only when the tabulating machines had been counted and put away.
“You’re helping the process, and you’re making sure that things are done right,” Brim said. “I mean, you feel like you’re accomplishing something for the country.”
Physical security
For county clerks, election administration requires physical security and cybersecurity. For the former, clerks must ensure proper maintenance and custody of voting equipment, ballots and voter rolls.
Clerks hold tests before every election and have a strict chain of custody protocol to protect from physical tampering. Every distributed ballot must be accounted for, and the machines are sealed until the ballots are removed for counting by the poll workers.
Most of the work outside of election season is maintaining the voter registration roll. The state elections board maintains a statewide roll, but it’s updated daily by the county clerks, Ackerman said.
“I think there’s a lot of hysteria about dead people voting, illegal aliens voting,” said Dunk. “I would say that’s just not something that we see, not in this county anyway.”
While Illinois does not require voter ID at the polls, Dunk said he has “definitely become more pro” voter identification and believes “having something” would make many residents feel more secure about elections.
At the urging of the president, whose claims of voter fraud are centered around noncitizen voting, members of Congress introduced the SAVE America Act, which would tighten voter ID guidelines and exercise more federal control over voter rolls.
“I’ve always been very fundamentally comfortable on how we’re operating today,” Gray said of the act. “But if it’s not enough to give confidence to the public, and they demand more controls and more vetting and more transparency in the process, I’m certainly supportive of that too.”
Election judges verify voter registration at polling places on Election Day by checking an individual’s signature against one they have on file. When registering to vote, individuals must show two forms of valid identification, one of which with their current address.
The SAVE America Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote and to show photo ID when they vote in-person or request an absentee ballot.
Voting rights advocates say the bill could disenfranchise millions who don’t have easy access to proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate. The act passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate.
Cybersecurity
County clerks also take charge of cybersecurity, working closely with local, state and federal law enforcement. Illinois is at the forefront of cybersecurity, Gray said, after the 2016 breach.
To protect tabulation machines from outside tampering, the machines have firewall protection systems, no connection to outside internet, strict chain of custody protocol and data redundancies.
“Every ballot is kept, every ballot that’s been cast by a voter and how it’s been marked is represented to each machine,” Gray said. “We go through audits and we show the public that how ballots are being marked as a direct reflection to how the machines are reading them.”
After the 2016 breach, Illinois used a federal grant to hire cybersecurity specialists to improve election security and started the Illinois Cyber Navigator Program to ensure every county has access to cybersecurity communication and training.
Federal grant funding for elections infrastructure is primarily awarded by the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission, but the funds are controlled by Congress. Between 2019 and 2021, annual funding was on average $400 million. In 2022 and 2023 it dropped to $75 million, then $55 million in 2024 and $15 million in 2025, according to Ackerman.
Ackerman led a bipartisan delegation of Illinois county clerks to Washington, D.C. last fall and again in April 2026 to advocate for election infrastructure funding.
“We all have the same struggles, the same issues, so it was a great opportunity to network, to talk, to see what best practices are being done elsewhere that we can bring back and utilize within our jurisdictions,” Ackerman said.
Capitol News Illinois reporter Molly Parker contributed reporting to this story.
This article was produced through the Healing Illinois: Democracy Lives Here Reporting Project with the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub at Northwestern University. Healing Illinois — an Illinois Department of Human Services initiative managed with the Field Foundation — supports storytelling and community collaborations to address racial and systemic inequities across the state.
