Overview

In 2024, a record-setting number of countries, covering over half of the world’s population, held nationwide elections. Voters went to the polls in countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, and Indonesia. While billions of people had the opportunity to vote, the quality of democracy and of the polls varied considerably across the sixty-plus countries that held elections. 

The “year of elections” shone a spotlight on the challenges to conducting polls that live up to their potential to enable citizens to hold leaders accountable. Freedom House estimates that 40 percent of these elections faced violence—ranging from attacks on polling places and politicians to crackdowns by security forces on protests to interference from criminal groups—which threatened people’s lives and may have discouraged political participation. Violence was not the only challenge: citizens in many countries had to weed through misinformation when making choices at the ballot box, contestants sometimes turned to fraud or vote buying rather than campaigning on policy, and in some cases, marginalized and opposition groups could not fully participate. The challenges were even greater in electoral authoritarian regimes from Russia to Rwanda, where restrictions on political and civil rights—persecution of the opposition, media restrictions, lack of free speech and assembly, and lack of judicial independence—significantly constrained the quality of elections.

With dozens of countries voting in 2026, it is vital to ensure that elections are fair and well-administered, citizens can make informed choices at the ballot box, and the risk of election violence is minimized. Rigorous research has identified promising interventions to help ensure fair, transparent, and inclusive elections, facilitating the peaceful transfer of power. In this brief, we share evidence from randomized evaluations, along with other rigorous quasi-experimental studies, of programs that aim to strengthen the quality of elections. Below, we present key recommendations for policy and research emerging from these evaluations. We then summarize evidence on strengthening election administration, mitigating election violence, empowering voters to make informed decisions, and bringing more citizens into the political process as voters and candidates. We conclude with a snapshot of ongoing research supported by the Governance, Crime, and Conflict Initiative (GCCI) along with open questions for further exploration.

This document was prepared by Anna Mysliwiec (Senior Policy Manager) and Aimee Barnes (Policy Manager) in affiliation with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and in collaboration with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). 

This policy brief is limited to impact evaluation studies that employ experimental or quasi-experimental designs; these rigorous impact evaluation designs can help identify whether programs causally lead to their desired outcomes, which program components are driving impact, and whether programs are cost-effective. This is not an exhaustive review of all of the rigorous evidence on this topic and should be considered alongside other evidence, including nonexperimental and qualitative research. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of any of the publication’s funders or those who provided input. J-PAL and IPA bear sole responsibility for the content of this brief.