Survey asks Arizona voters what they value in elections — as Trump attempts to overhaul them

There are a lot of efforts nationwide right now to reshape American elections.

President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order just this week aiming to create a verified voter list and seriously limit mail-in voting. In Congress, Republicans are trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote and photo ID at the polls.

In Arizona, there are efforts at the state Legislature to get rid of the so-called “late early” ballots that folks drop off on Election Day in hopes of speeding up election results.

But, Sybil Francis said most Arizonans do not want major changes to elections. Francis is chair, president and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona, which conducted a new survey of Arizona voters and asked them a slew of questions about elections in the state.

They wanted to know: In the eyes of Arizonans, what makes a good election?

The Show spoke with Francis about it.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: I want to start with that one really big number here that you found in this survey, 97% of Arizonans, across political lines, say they believe that fair and secure elections are essential to a healthy democracy. And I just want to start there, because I know that you find often in your work that we agree on a lot more than you might think in the political landscape and in policy here in Arizona — but 97% is pretty nearly everybody. Were you surprised by that?

SYBIL FRANCIS: I can't say I was surprised. I was very gratified to hear that it is the highest number that we've ever gotten on any survey. And we've been doing surveys of Arizonans for nearly 20 years. So it was very encouraging to know that Arizonans understand that fair and secure elections are essential to democracy.

GILGER: So let's dig into these numbers a little bit, because there were some numbers that were less unanimous. But one thing that most people agreed on is that they value accuracy in elections over speed in elections, right? And this is a point of contention in our state, because our election results tend to be a little slower than they are elsewhere. Especially as we're seeing more and more kind of tight elections recently, right?

FRANCIS: Yes, absolutely. One of the reasons for "slow returns" or "slow reports" is that, in fact, our elections are getting so close that you really have to count every last vote to make sure that you get an accurate count. We step back to ask Arizonans, what do they prioritize in elections? And yes, we did ask about whether accuracy or speed were most important to them. And 7 out of 10 Arizonans prefer to make sure that we have an accurate count versus having a very speedy result.

GILGER: Right. Even though that's an issue that's gotten a lot of political play, there's legislation now attempting to restrict the returning of those late early ballots, as they're called. I wonder about one area that you talked about with voters here to do with their trust in our local elected officials. It seems like politics comes into play here a little bit.

FRANCIS: Well, it was really interesting. As you may know, we partnered with Bill Gates on some of this work. He's the former supervisor of Maricopa County, and very much in the hot seat. And, you know, I think he was especially pleased to see that local election workers and county elections officials are actually the most trusted when it comes to running safe, secure and fair elections. So that was a really interesting finding, that the closer you get to where people vote, the more people are trusting in those officials.

GILGER: That's interesting. So the more local, the higher the trust goes up. What about when it comes to our kind of statewide officials on elections?

FRANCIS: Yes, they also have a very high level of trust. So local election workers are trusted at 75% level, and state election officials are trusted at 67%. I will say that we do find some gaps between Republicans and Democrats in these areas. So you can find 51% of Republicans trust their local elected officials. And so that's, that's, you know, probably lower than we want to see. It's still about a majority but, but I think that that does point to some work that needs to be done to build up that trust.

GILGER: Let me ask you about misinformation. Here. You asked voters about this, and it seems to be a broad concern and one that you know seems to be more relevant today than ever, maybe. We're seeing lots of misinformation around elections, how to vote, things like that, where did their concerns lie?

FRANCIS: So this was one of the highest levels of agreement. When we asked about concerns that voters might have around elections, 88% said that they had concerns around misinformation, and some of that really revolved around, you know, are they getting accurate information about where to vote? Are they getting accurate information about the candidates? So there is a lot of concern. You can tell that there is concern around the kinds of information that voters are getting and that they're not feeling confident in it.

GILGER: We are watching this all happen in this context in which there's a lot happening at the federal level as well. There's a lot of election related bills at the state Legislature, but we're watching GOP efforts in Washington to pass the Save act at the federal level, which would really change elections in America. We just saw President Trump issue a sweeping Executive Order aimed at mail in voting that would really reshape American elections as well. It would do things like create lists of US citizens who are eligible to vote in each state, things like instructing the Postal Service to only send mail in ballots to verified voters, things like that. Where do Arizona voters stand on mail in voting in your polling, but also on you know whether or not we should require things like proof of ID for voting.

FRANCIS: So Arizonans love to vote by mail. About 81% of Arizonans voted by mail in the last election, and our survey results show that 80% of Arizonans do believe that we should continue to be able to vote by mail. So that is a very, very clear signal that Arizonans enjoy voting by mail. They trust it, and they want to be able to continue it. I think that one of the relevant points about the recent Trump announcement regarding sort of federalizing in some ways vote by mail, is that go back to that question that Arizonans trust state and local leaders to run their election. So if you start asking the federal government to do certain things that's going to erode trust. I think it's important for everyone to understand that, in fact, you do have to show an ID in Arizona to vote. So you know, this is one of the areas of misinformation that is kind of interesting to see that people are expressing concern, that people may not need to show an ID to vote, but in fact, in Arizona, they do have to show an ID to vote.

GILGER: Yeah, that's very interesting to point out, and we should say, lots of experts say that the President lacks the authority there for that executive order, but we'll see what happens on that front. So let me ask you, Sybil, about funding elections and what voters had to say here. You've been holding events with election officials to talk about this survey data. What have they had to say about the need for funding?

FRANCIS: Well, certainly they, you know, in order to do the things that elections officials are being asked to do, resources are required. So it was very gratifying to Bill Gates, our partner in this, to see that Arizonans really do believe that we should be spending more to make sure that our elections are run efficiently and smoothly. We had some of the highest numbers that we've ever had in terms of support for additional funding, and even voters said that they would be willing to pay more in taxes to be able to invest more in elections.

GILGER: I'm sure that's a high bar. Let me ask you lastly about just the overall picture here, as you saw these results come in. I mean, you all do this work, and you often find that people agree on more than they disagree on, but these are very contentious issues and hotly debated ones in terms of our you know, the health of our democracy right now. What was the main takeaway for you?

FRANCIS: The main takeaway is that people respect and understand and care passionately about safe, secure and fair elections. They understand that they're important to our democracy. They believe their vote makes a difference. 79% of Arizonans said their vote makes a difference. Their core principles that they care about are accuracy, trustworthiness and transparency. And I guess a way to say this is they don't want to mess with it. You know, they want to be able to keep voting by mail. They believe in showing a voter ID, and you have to do that in Arizona. So I think what I took away from it is that Arizonans fervently believe in our system. They trust our local election officials and that they believe their vote matters, so that we should really not be messing with it too much.

GILGER: Well, that certainly says something about the health of democracy. All right. Sybil Francis, chair, President and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona, joining us. Sybil, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on.

FRANCIS: Thank you so much, Lauren.