The Functioning of Democracy: Insights from Michigan’s local leaders

In a political climate where election security is frequently called into question, Michigan municipal leaders show increasing confidence in Michigan elections, according to a recent report by researchers at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in the Ford School of Public Policy. CLOSUP’s surveys find that in 2022, local government leaders expressed more confidence in their jurisdiction’s ability to securely and accurately administer elections than they did when asked a similar question in 2020. 85% of surveyed leaders reported that they are “very” confident that the accuracy of vote counts in their jurisdictions would not be compromised—compared to 63% who expressed such high confidence in 2020. Leaders are also increasingly confident that they would know if vote counts were compromised in their jurisdictions, with 78% expressing that they are very confident that they would if their elections were compromised in 2022, up from 58% in 2020. CLOSUP offers a a summary of their findings as well their full report. CLOSUP’s research and initiatives provide important information and context for policymakers in the State of Michigan, and its Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), launched in 2009, serves as the nation's only ongoing census-style survey of every unit of general purpose local government across an entire state.