Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor and the director of the Elections Research Center, said politicians have a role to play in how the public perceives elections. “When they raise questions about elections that are not based on fact or don’t have that kind of substantial foundation below them that actually undermines confidence,” Burden said. “A person saying publicly that they lack confidence or they have a suspicion about something going wrong, that actually fuels suspicion or lack of confidence so it becomes kind of a vicious circle.”
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