FP Virtual Dialogue: Restoring Trust in Election Results

September 28, 2022

What are the factors that influence people’s confidence in the legitimacy of an electoral process and outcome?

Lack of trust is becoming a defining element of elections in countries around the world. From rejecting candidates deemed untrustworthy to refusing to accept electoral outcomes, this lack of trust manifests in a range of ways—all of which are damaging to both democratic institutions and social cohesion. Whether spurred by past performances, historical divisions, grievances between factions, or deliberately fueled by political actors seeking to capitalize on instability, once distrust takes root, even the most technically sound electoral process can be overshadowed. Public trust is hard won, easily lost, and very difficult to restore.

Public perceptions are the new electoral battleground, magnified by social media, a convoluted and compromised information landscape, and seemingly endless election cycles in many societies. While every election and electoral system has its flaws, electoral integrity must be strengthened to legitimately reflect the will of the voters and for election results to be accepted by the electorate. Trust does not necessarily stem from perfection, but from a belief in the legitimacy of a process and its outcomes, as well as confidence that the people involved are performing their duties in accordance with the law.

Against this backdrop, Foreign Policy, in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), will convene a timely conversation with leaders from government, media, and civil society to discuss how to restore trust in elections and democratic institutions around the world.

Join the conversation with #TrustedResults.

In partnership with

Speakers

Christopher Krebs

Former Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) & Founding Partner, Krebs Stamos Group

Christopher Krebs is Founding Partner of the Krebs Stamos Group and Chair of the Commission on Information Disorder at the Aspen Institute. He previously served as th...

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Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld

Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld advises governments, philanthropists, and activists on how democracies make major social change. As a sen...

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Dr. Cassandra Emmons

Democracy Data Analyst, IFES

Dr. Cassandra Emmons is the Democracy Data Analyst at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). In this role, she is responsible for developing IFES’ data ana...

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Chad Vickery

Vice President, Global Strategy and Technical Leadership, IFES

Chad Vickery, vice president of global strategy and technical leadership at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), has extensive legal and international ele...

Chad Vickery, vice president of global strategy and technical leadership at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), has extensive legal and international election administration experience with an emphasis on strengthening democracy and governance in transitioning societies. He manages IFES’ global applied research, technical leadership and strategic innovations initiatives. He specializes in designing and managing electoral integrity initiatives; election complaint adjudication programs; providing comparative legal analysis; working on elections; and rule of law programs throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia, Eurasia and the Middle East. Vickery’s specific programmatic experience includes leading electoral integrity assessments and projects designed to ensure the development of impartial legal frameworks for elections, increasing professionalism of election management bodies, establishing effective election dispute programs, and increasing political participation of historically disenfranchised groups into the electoral process. Vickery has also spearheaded the development of new methodologies for assessing the integrity of elections in countries around the world, with a focus on electoral fraud and malpractice and the investigation and adjudication of electoral complaints. He is a member of the Advisory Board to the Electoral Integrity Project, based at the University of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a member of the Washington State Bar and has been appointed to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Advisory Committee to the Standing Committee on Election Law and is co-Chair of the Task Force on International Election Law within the ABA Section of International Law. He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University; a Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America with a concentration in comparative and international law; and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Washington.

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Mvemba Phezo Dizolele

Senior Fellow and Director of the Africa Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Mvemba Phezo Dizolele is a senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a l...

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Ravi Agrawal

Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy

Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy. Before joining FP, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade, including his most recent position as the network’s New...

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