Hey, Elected Leaders: Are You Listening?
Top findings from the new Better Choices for Democracy + AlphaRoc 2026 Election Confidence Tracker
The crisis facing American democracy today is increasingly a crisis of representation. Too many Americans feel unseen. Too many feel unheard. Too many believe the people elected to serve the voters are not accountable to them.
Pew Research Center has found that 83% of Americans say elected officials do not care what people like them think, making the United States one of only five countries surveyed where 80% or more held this view. And when Pew asked Americans to look ahead to 2050, majorities of both Republicans and Democrats said they expect the country to be more politically divided than it is today. Roughly similar shares in both parties also said they expect the U.S. system of government to work worse than it does today.
That is the context for the Better Choices for Democracy + AlphaRoc 2026 Election Confidence Tracker (check out the data dashboard and take a deeper dive).
Instead of tracking only the generic ballot or which candidates are ahead or behind in the traditional horse race, we are tracking something deeper: whether Americans believe their votes will count, whether they feel either party represents them, whether they think Congress listens, what is driving political anxiety, and what will shape how they vote.
In other words, we are tracking the health of democratic representation itself.
Five Key Takeaways From Better Choices for Democracy + AlphaRoc 2026 Election Confidence Tracker Data, March-May 2026
The first three months of data show that many Americans still trust the mechanics of vote counting. But they are far less confident that political leaders, parties, and institutions are listening to them or offering choices that genuinely represent them.
1. Confidence in the accuracy of vote counts is relatively strong, but highly uneven.
Across the first three months, roughly eight in ten respondents said they were very or somewhat confident that votes in their county or city will be counted as voters intend: 79.9% in March, 84.5% in April, and 82.3% in May. The share who were not too or not at all confident was much lower: 14.4% in March, 8.9% in April, and 11.8% in May.
In May, confidence that votes will be counted as intended was much higher among registered voters than non-registered respondents, 88.0% to 38.1%. It was also higher among older adults than younger adults, men than women, college graduates than non-college respondents, and Democrats and Republicans than independents.
The pattern is important. Americans are not uniformly rejecting election administration. But confidence is uneven, and the gaps are largest among groups that are less connected to the political system.
2. The biggest weakness for democracy is not vote-count confidence. It is representation and responsiveness.
A key problem for American politics is not simply that Congress is dysfunctional. It is that many Americans experience Congress as distant, unresponsive, and inattentive to people like them.
In May, only 28.0% of respondents said their members of Congress care “a great deal” or “a lot” about what people like them think. By contrast, 42.3% said members of Congress care only “a little” or “not at all.”
Perceptions of congressional responsiveness were somewhat better among adults ages 30–44, Republicans, younger adults ages 18–29, men, and college graduates. But they were especially weak among independents, adults ages 45 and older, women, and respondents without a college degree.
Views of party representation are also mixed and highly uneven. In May, 41.9% of respondents said Democrats represent people like them very or somewhat well, while 46.1% said the same of Republicans.
But those toplines mask important differences. Views of Democratic representation were stronger among Black respondents, adults ages 30–44, and younger adults ages 18–29. Views of Republican representation were stronger among men, adults ages 30–44, higher-income respondents earning $150,000 or more, and college graduates.
The broader story is that many Americans may be confident that ballots will be counted, but they are much less convinced that the political system is listening.
3. Political anxiety is being driven by distrust in leaders and partisan division.
Whether people believe leaders are acting in good faith, solving real problems, and representing the broader public matters for the health of democracy. Our tracker shows that the emotional structure of the electorate can be summarized this way: many Americans believe politics is dishonest, divisive, and broken.
The tracker asks respondents, in their own words, what about politics makes them anxious or stressed.
In May, the top two anxiety themes nationally were political leaders, lying, and corruption at 26.5%, followed by partisan division and polarization at 25.0%.
Among Democrats, the top concern was about leaders lying and corruption at 36.8%. Among Republicans, partisan division was the top theme at 31.4%.
4. Independents are especially disconnected from the system.
Independents are not simply “swing voters” in a horse-race sense. They are a large group of Americans who are less attached to the existing political system and less convinced that either party is responsive to them.
Independents stand out across the tracker as more skeptical of institutions and less convinced that either party speaks for them.
In May, independents were less confident in vote counting than either Democrats or Republicans, with 69.3% saying they were very or somewhat confident that votes will be counted as intended. They were also far less likely to say Congress cares what people like them think, at just 10.6%.
They reported weak representation from both parties: 31.7% said Democrats represent people like them very or somewhat well, while 35.0% said the same of Republicans.
When asked what matters most in how they vote, candidate choice and integrity led among independents at 28.3%, followed by economic issues at 22.0%.
5. More respondents are moving from general intent to a specific plan to vote.
The good news is that the share of respondents saying they have a specific plan to vote increased from 54.9% in March to 64.5% in May. Meanwhile, the share who were unsure, probably would not vote, or did not plan to vote fell from 22.4% to 15.2%. That is one of the clearest positive early movement points in the tracker.
In May 2026, the respondents most likely to say they had a specific plan to vote were rural voters, Republicans, registered voters, college graduates, men, older adults, and higher-income Americans. By contrast, the least likely to report a specific voting plan were non-registered respondents, younger adults, independents, lower-income Americans, and several less politically anchored groups.
Taken together, these patterns suggest that intention to vote is strongest among voters who are already more civically connected and structurally positioned to participate, while the weakest plan-to-vote rates are concentrated among groups that appear more economically and politically distant from the electoral system.
The bottom line
Americans deserve more than a political system that counts votes accurately. They deserve a political system that gives them meaningful choices, rewards leaders for listening, and makes elected officials accountable to a broader public.
