Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Americans’ confidence in the vote count is at its lowest point in years, according to a recent PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.
This three-part PBS NewsHour series examines how elections are run and secured as the midterms approach, at a time when the voting process itself has become a political battleground.
The series begins in Georgia, the center of President Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 elections results. There, he pressed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to reverse his loss. The state returned to the spotlight in January, when the FBI seized the 2020 ballots and records from Fulton County’s election hub in a raid attended by the director of national intelligence. White House
Correspondent Liz Landers goes behind the scenes with Raffensperger and his team to see how voting machines and ballots are stored, tracked and protected. She also visits a county election office and interviews a Trump-aligned member of the State Election Board.
In Philadelphia, another target of Trump’s 2020 fraud claims, which courts rejected, Capitol Hill Correspondent Lisa Desjardins observes a training session for election workers. She also interviews the city commissioners, the bipartisan three-member board that runs Philadelphia’s elections. They discuss mail-in ballots, security, and how they are preparing for the possibility of federal agents at polling places.
A third report will likely track court challenges to the Election Day results.
