NORC Launches Civic Health & Elections Project
For more information or to discuss partnership opportunities, contact Jennifer Benz.
CHICAGO, April 22, 2026 — NORC at the University of Chicago has launched the Civic Health & Elections Project, a nonpartisan, 50-state study of more than 85,000 registered voters, publicly available immediately after the 2026 election.
The NORC Civic Health & Elections Project is designed to improve civic discourse and decision-making across the United States. It combines a large-scale survey with external data to provide unprecedented state-level depth and rapid, accessible data tools for communities, media, and policymakers to strengthen accountability and civic confidence.
“This study will provide a deep understanding of the electorate and the forces shaping their decisions by measuring views on the issues impacting their daily lives, including economic mobility, health care, immigration, public safety, AI, trust, and more,” said Jennifer Benz, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Media Research at NORC.
“An important goal for this research is to democratize the data,” said David Sterrett, Principal Research Scientist at NORC. “The project is making the data and findings easily accessible for civic organizations, policymakers, journalists, researchers, and the public the day after the election through interactive dashboards, mapping tools, and a public use dataset.”
“This study will provide a deep understanding of the electorate and the forces shaping their decisions by measuring views on the issues impacting their daily lives, including economic mobility, health care, immigration, public safety, AI, trust, and more.”
NORC is seeking sponsors and collaborators to shape the research, expand its reach, and increase the impact of the project. We are working with foundations, researchers, businesses, news organizations, and civic organizations committed to independent, transparent, and accessible research designed to improve civic discourse and decision-making. For more information or to discuss partnership opportunities, contact Jennifer Benz at benz-jenny@norc.org or (978) 595-7364.
Building on the public release of the Civic Health & Elections Project, NORC also offers AmeriSpeak® Voter Surveys, which offer a way for individual researchers and organizations to customize and extend the study. Through this omnibus-style survey series, researchers can field custom questions to 1,000-5,000 registered voters before the election, after it, or both, while following the same respondents over time. Powered by NORC’s nationally representative AmeriSpeak probability panel, AmeriSpeak Voter Surveys provide access to the full Civic Health & Elections Project dataset linked at the respondent level. The result is longitudinal depth and analytical power at a fraction of the cost of a standalone study, with data that remains exclusively owned by the researcher.
About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.
Contact: For more information, please email press@norc.org or call (877) 832-0392.
