When a student in his social studies class turns 18, high school teacher Drew Hettinger’s birthday gift is always the same: a voter registration form.
“I call it a birthday card, and I write ‘Happy 18th birthday – Here’s a card you can actually use,’” he jokes. “You teach 17-year-olds and there is an excitement about elections and voting, because it’s a coming-of-age moment where you get to participate for the first time.”
But something has changed over Hettinger’s 30 years in California classrooms, he says. There’s a newfound pessimism among his students in recent years, who have less confidence that their vote matters.
“In class we call it political efficacy, you know: ‘My vote, my voice does matter.’ I think with today’s polarization, there’s a feeling that if my party’s not in power, then I don’t have a voice,” Hettinger says.
His students are not alone.
A new Gallup poll released Thursday found that Americans across the nation are heading into the midterm elections with concerns over election integrity, democracy and disputed votes.
Darrell West, a senior fellow in governance studies at Brookings Institution, points to recent moves from President Donald Trump’s administration that may be stoking distrust in the electoral process.
“We’ve seen the National Guard patrolling major cities. There’s concern over whether they will show up at polling places. The Trump administration has requested voter lists. There’s suspicion about whether people might be denied the ability to cast ballots. There are concerns about actually counting the ballots,” says West. “I think the general worry is, President Trump has been claiming the election is going to be stolen, months before the election actually takes place.”
Disputing Election Results
A majority (67%) of Gallup survey respondents reported “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of concern regarding political leaders pressuring election officials to change election outcomes in November’s midterms. Looking at a partisan split, Democrats were significantly more likely than Republicans to express these concerns, at 77% vs. 56%.
Hettinger, the California high school teacher, points to Trump’s repeated attempts to pressure election officials during the 2020 presidential election – and his false claims that he won that election – as cause for concern.
“I have great faith in the actual election officials,” said Hettinger. “I feel like those are public servants that take their job really seriously. I do have concerns stemming from what happened in 2020, when Trump was pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State on the phone to just find more votes. So I have great concern that Trump will definitely try to do that kind of thing again.”
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Trump and his allies, including Vice President JD Vance, have refused to concede Trump lost the 2020 election. And in April, a federal judge ruled that Trump is not immune from civil lawsuits claiming he incited his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before his loss in the election was certified.
Ballot Counting
Americans across party lines are worried about their ballots being improperly handled, counted or secured, Gallup’s survey found: two-thirds of Republicans and about half of Democrats and independents reported concern over the issue. Nearly half of all respondents reported concern that their ballot would not be counted at all, the survey found.
These findings come as Trump pushes Congress to revamp voting laws ahead of the midterms. In a recent speech, Trump claimed that the country has “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure”– a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. Trump has urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, an election reform bill that would implement stringent voter ID laws and put an end to mail-in ballots, both mechanisms through which he claims “fraud” voting occurs.
West argues that remaining consistent in voter ID laws and counting mail-in ballots is the best way to ensure voters feel empowered to participate in the midterms this November.
“The most important thing we can do right now is not change the rules right before the election. That makes people suspicious and it leads them to doubt the integrity of the process,” says West. “We’ve reached the point where we’re close enough to the midterms. We need to quit tinkering with the rules. If they want to make changes for 2028, that’s a different story, but they should not be changing the 2026 rules.”
Political Integrity
Beyond the dynamics of Election Day, survey respondents expressed concern about the integrity of politics in the country itself and the trustworthiness of politicians.
Eight in 10 said they were concerned a “great deal” or a “fair amount” that political leaders could be taking actions they know may be illegal, while a similar 78% feared wealthy people or organizations making large, anonymous donations to political causes. Over three-fourths of survey respondents reported concern about gerrymandering, or changing voting district boundaries to favor a political party or candidate.
Still, West offers an optimistic perspective on Americans’ faith in democracy.
“If people feel the election is going to be rigged,” says West of voters on either side of the aisle, “I think it will make them more likely to want to vote. It will awaken people to the stakes of the election. Typically, people who think elections matter, think your vote matters, are much more likely to vote.”
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