Plus polling on trust in the government, an overhaul to the political system, election fairness, mail-in voting, and wealth limits.
All of the items below are among Election Day registered voters — those U.S. adult citizens who either are registered to vote or who say they plan to register before Election Day
- Only 2% say they "just about always" trust the government in Washington to do what is right. 14% say they trust it most of the time, 62% say only some of the time, and 22% say never
- 45% — including equal shares of Democrats (48%) and Republicans (48%) — think the 2026 midterm elections will be conducted fairly and the votes will be counted accurately; 22% think this will not happen
- 62% believe that mail-in voting should be allowed, while 28% say it shouldn't be. Nearly all Democrats (91%) support allowing mail-in voting, compared to only 33% of Republicans
- 26% strongly or somewhat support limits on how much money somebody can have, and 58% oppose them. Republicans oppose limits by 78% to 12%. Democrats are divided: 41% support limits and 39% oppose them
See the toplines and crosstabs for the September 4 - 8, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,616 U.S. adult citizens, including 1,469 who reported that they were currently registered to vote or planned to register before the election in November. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.4%.
Image: Getty
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