Name: Older Americans, those with college degrees have greater confidence in upcoming midterm elections
Creator: Pew Research Center
Published: 2026-08-05
License: https://www.pewresearch.org/terms-and-conditions/

A person drops off a mail-in ballot during early voting outside the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder building on June 1, 2026, in Norwalk, California. (Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

A narrow majority of Americans (55%) are confident that this November’s midterm elections will be conducted fairly and accurately – down from 61% ahead of the 2024 elections, 64% in 2022 and 59% in 2020.

But in contrast to those earlier years, Americans’ views don’t differ substantially by party today, even as Republicans and Democrats express different concerns about elections.

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents:

55% now say they have confidence the upcoming midterms will be conducted fairly and accurately.
This is up from 47% in the summer of 2024 and 46% in the summer of 2022. Joe Biden was president in both years.
But it is lower than in the spring of 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term (and in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic).

About this research

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at Americans’ views about the upcoming midterm elections, including whether they will be conducted fairly and accurately and whether all eligible citizens – and no ineligible voters – will be able to vote if they wish to.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. We have studied Americans’ views of voting and elections for decades.

Learn more about Pew Research Center and our politics research.

How did we do this?

Most of the data for this analysis comes from a Center survey of 3,554 U.S. adults conducted July 6-12, 2026. Everyone who took this survey is part of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey reflects the views of all U.S. adults. Here are the July survey questions we used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.

This analysis also uses data from a Center survey conducted April 20-26, 2026. Here are the April survey questions, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

Among Democrats and Democratic leaners:

58% now express confidence in the fairness and accuracy of this year’s elections.
Confidence today is substantially lower than in 2024 (77%) and 2022 (81%).
Confidence remains higher than in April 2020, when 46% of Democrats expressed confidence the 2020 election would be conducted fairly and accurately.

The new Pew Research Center survey of 3,554 adults was conducted July 6-12. The survey also finds that 66% of Americans overall are very or somewhat confident that all citizens who want to vote this November will be able to cast ballots.

Republicans have long been more likely than Democrats to express confidence on this question. But the partisan gap was narrower in 2024 and 2022 than it is today:

83% of Republicans now say they are very or somewhat confident that all citizens who want to vote in November will be able to do so.

Far fewer Democrats (53%) express a similar level of confidence.
In 2024 and 2022, during Joe Biden’s presidency, larger majorities of Democrats (71% and 66%, respectively) expressed confidence that every interested citizen would be able to vote.

However, the partisan gap was even wider in April 2020 than it is today. At the time, 87% of Republicans and fewer than half of Democrats (43%) expressed confidence. And two-thirds of Americans – including 80% of Democrats – thought it was very or somewhat likely that the COVID-19 pandemic would significantly disrupt Americans’ ability to vote that November.

Will all eligible voters – and no ineligible voters – be able to vote?

A separate Pew Research Center survey – conducted April 20-26, 2026, among 5,103 U.S. adults – finds that an overwhelming majority of the public (90%) says it is very or somewhat important that “no eligible voters are prevented from voting” in U.S. elections. Nearly as many (85%) say it is important that “no ineligible voters are permitted to vote.”

Wide, bipartisan majorities view each of these as at least somewhat important:

89% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats say it is important to ensure that all eligible voters can vote.
92% of Republicans and 79% of Democrats say it is important that no ineligible voters are permitted to vote.

But there are substantial partisan differences on whether U.S. elections achieve these goals. Republicans are 16 percentage points more likely than Democrats (77% vs. 61%) to say the following statement describes U.S. elections very or somewhat well: “No eligible voters are prevented from voting.”

The two groups are even further apart when it comes to ineligible voters casting ballots. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans (79% vs. 37%) to say the following statement describes U.S. elections at least somewhat well: “No ineligible voters are permitted to vote.” Fewer than half of Democrats (46%) and just 12% of Republicans say this statement describes elections very well.

Public views – including partisan differences – are largely unchanged on these questions since we first asked them in 2018.

Note: Here are the July survey questions we used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology. And here are the April survey questions, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

Additional demographic chart

	Group	Somewhat	Very	NET
Apr ’20	Total	45	14	59
Aug ’22	Total	39	25	64
Jul ’24	Total	37	24	61
Jul ’26	Total	40	15	55
Apr ’20	Rep/Lean Rep	55	20	75
Aug ’22	Rep/Lean Rep	34	12	46
Jul ’24	Rep/Lean Rep	36	11	47
Jul ’26	Rep/Lean Rep	42	13	55
Apr ’20	Dem/Lean Dem	37	9	46
Aug ’22	Dem/Lean Dem	43	37	81
Jul ’24	Dem/Lean Dem	38	39	77
Jul ’26	Dem/Lean Dem	39	18	58

	Group	Somewhat	Very	NET
Apr ’20	Total	39	25	63
Aug ’22	Total	40	33	73
Jul ’24	Total	42	33	76
Jul ’26	Total	39	28	66
Apr ’20	Rep/Lean Rep	46	41	87
Aug ’22	Rep/Lean Rep	38	45	83
Jul ’24	Rep/Lean Rep	40	43	83
Jul ’26	Rep/Lean Rep	36	47	83
Apr ’20	Dem/Lean Dem	32	11	43
Aug ’22	Dem/Lean Dem	42	24	66
Jul ’24	Dem/Lean Dem	45	25	71
Jul ’26	Dem/Lean Dem	41	12	53

	Question	Very well	Somewhat well	NET
Total	No eligible voters are prevented from voting	30	38	68
Rep/Lean Rep	No eligible voters are prevented from voting	39	38	77
Dem/Lean Dem	No eligible voters are prevented from voting	23	38	61
Total	No ineligible voters are permitted to vote	29	29	58
Rep/Lean Rep	No ineligible voters are permitted to vote	12	25	37
Dem/Lean Dem	No ineligible voters are permitted to vote	46	33	79

	Group	Somewhat	Very	NET
Total	Total	40	15	55
White	Race/Ethnicity	42	15	57
Hispanic	Race/Ethnicity	39	15	54
Black	Race/Ethnicity	32	18	50
Asian*	Race/Ethnicity	44	18	62
Ages 18-29	Age	35	14	50
30-49	Age	37	12	49
50-64	Age	43	16	59
65+	Age	47	19	66
College grad+	Education	44	17	61
No college degree	Education	38	14	52
Rep/Lean Rep	Rep/Lean Rep	42	13	55
Conserv	Rep/Lean Rep	41	11	53
Mod/Lib	Rep/Lean Rep	42	16	59
Dem/Lean Dem	Dem/Lean Dem	39	18	58
Cons/Mod	Dem/Lean Dem	41	20	61
Liberal	Dem/Lean Dem	37	16	54

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