Why

Trust is infrastructure. It needs maintenance.

Public trust in government has fallen for decades, and the line between voters and the officials they elect has grown faint. The evidence below is why the Foundation for Government Legitimacy builds what it builds.

17%

Trust the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time — down from 73% in 1958 [1]. As of September 2025

01Trust

Trust has been falling for decades.

In 1958, 73% of Americans trusted the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.” By September 2025, 17% did. [1] Since 2007, that figure has never exceeded 30%. [1]

Trust has not disappeared; it has moved. Nonprofits are the most trusted sector in America: in 2024, 57% of Americans trusted them, up 5 points, while trust in government, business and media declined. [2]

70%

Say people in lawmakers’ districts have too little influence over congressional decisions [3]. As of 2023

02Voice

Seven in ten say districts have too little say.

In 2023, 70% of Americans said people in lawmakers’ districts have too little influence over congressional decisions. [3] In the same year, 80% said big campaign donors have too much influence on those decisions, and 73% said the same of lobbyists and special interests. [4]

Constituents still count when they show up. In a 2010 survey, 97% of congressional staff said in-person constituent visits have some or a lot of influence on an undecided Member. [5] The question is how every constituent’s view can count, not only the views of those who make the trip.

18M of 22M

Comments in the FCC’s 2017 net neutrality proceeding that were fake [6]. As of May 2021

03Verification

Volume is not a voice.

In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission received more than 22 million comments in its net neutrality proceeding. Nearly 18 million were fake: 8.5 million impersonated real people, and another 9.3 million used fictitious identities. The fakes came from both sides of the issue. [6]

Congressional offices see a version of the same problem. In 2010, 53% of congressional staff agreed that most identical form-message campaigns are sent without the constituent’s knowledge or approval. [5]

When anyone can be anyone, a count of messages measures effort, not opinion. Verification turns input back into evidence.

36% to 6%

Response rate of a typical telephone survey, 1997 to 2018 [7] [8]. As of 2018

04Public opinion

Fewer people pick up the phone.

The response rate of a typical telephone survey was 36% in 1997. [7] By 2018 it was 6%. [8]

Surveys remain essential. Civrali adds something different: the recorded positions of verified constituents, matched to their own districts and made available to their own officials before the vote is cast.

522,265

Registered voters in San Francisco for the November 5, 2024 election [12]. As of November 2024

05Local

Close to home, and easy to overlook.

Americans trust local government more than state government or any branch of the federal government: 67% trust it, by Gallup’s 2023 measure. [9] Yet local elections often draw the fewest voters. As of 2022, turnout in local school board elections ran 5–10%, compared with about 67% in presidential elections, [10] and in the 30 largest U.S. cities, average mayoral-election turnout was about 20%, based on 2016 data. [11]

The Foundation is based in San Francisco. The city had 522,265 registered voters for the November 5, 2024 election, and 412,231 of them voted. [12] Its Board of Supervisors has 11 members, each elected by district, [13] so every voter has a supervisor of their own.

06What the Foundation is building

A verified line from every voter to their officials.

Civrali is a civic engagement application available exclusively to verified registered voters. It connects each voter to the elected officials they can vote in and out of office, and to the legislation those officials will vote on.

A voter sees every bill that comes before their own representatives, with the full text alongside a neutral summary, and records a position: Yea, Nay, or Abstain. Each voter’s registration status is confirmed through a patent-pending verification process.

About Civrali

Sources

  1. Pew Research Center, “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2025,” December 4, 2025. Back to text
  2. Independent Sector, Trust in Nonprofits and Philanthropy, June 2024. Back to text
  3. Pew Research Center, “Money, Power and the Influence of Ordinary People in American Politics,” September 19, 2023. Back to text
  4. Pew Research Center, “Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics,” September 19, 2023. Back to text
  5. Congressional Management Foundation, Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill, 2011 (survey of 260 congressional staff, October–December 2010). Back to text
  6. New York State Office of the Attorney General, Fake Comments (report), May 6, 2021. Back to text
  7. Pew Research Center, “Assessing the Representativeness of Public Opinion Surveys,” May 15, 2012. Back to text
  8. Pew Research Center, “Response rates in telephone surveys have resumed their decline,” February 27, 2019. Back to text
  9. Gallup, “Americans Trust Local Government Most; Congress Least,” 2023 (fieldwork September 1–23, 2023). Back to text
  10. Carnegie Corporation of New York, “Visualizing Voter Turnout in Local and School Board Elections,” November 2, 2022 (citing the National School Boards Association). Back to text
  11. Harvard Kennedy School, Data-Smart City Solutions, “Map of the Month: Who Votes for Mayor,” October 31, 2017 (reporting a Portland State University study). Back to text
  12. City and County of San Francisco, Department of Elections, certification of the November 5, 2024 Consolidated General Election. Back to text
  13. Wikipedia, “San Francisco Board of Supervisors.” Back to text

Last reviewed