Perhaps surprisingly, hard rock band AC/DC encapsulated the top issue that dictated who Lisa Shafer voted for this year.

“I think of the old ‘dirty deeds, done dirt cheap,’ Shafer said, referencing one of the Australian band’s iconic lyrics.

“It’s stuff done in the dark. No public input,” she added. “Especially when things are intentionally kept from us. Unpleasant surprises, such as data centers. ‘Oh, by the way, guess what’s going up in your backyard.’ … And I’m seeing it on all levels.”

No matter where you live, corruption in government was the top driving issue in the 2026 election, even overtaking concerns about skyrocketing gas and grocery prices in national polls.

Nationally, government corruption ranked as voters’ most important issue in a CNBC pre-election survey, followed by the cost of groceries, protecting democracy and the price of gas.

Nearly 90% of Americans said government corruption is a problem in a Harris Interactive poll for The Guardian news outlet, with more than three-quarters saying elected officials “care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people.”

Closer to home, it was also a pivotal issue for Utah voters.

The Salt Lake Tribune asked readers this summer what issues were most important to them ahead of the 2026 election. Corruption was top of the list in the non-scientific survey, ahead of affordability and preserving the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River.

Utahns said they perceive corruption as a problem at all levels of government — national, state and local — and are tired of elected officials putting the interests of the wealthy and well-connected ahead of the well-being of the average constituent, often while enriching themselves.

‘They Just Don’t Have The Moral Courage’

Corruption isn’t new in politics. Derek Larsen, 64, recognizes that. But where it used to be comparable to the size of a Matchbox car, he said, it is now more like a semi-truck in the Trump era.

“It seems like it’s a grift,” he said. “It’s kind of like, ‘How much can I make? How fast can I make it?’ at the expense of the government, at the expense of the public.”

Moreover, the South Jordan resident said, he is fed up that nobody is willing to hold anyone accountable.

“Congress has just turned its back on being a guardrail,” he said. “Very few people [in Congress] have a backbone. There’s so much kowtowing and worrying about their political careers.”

“I believe that a lot of them feel sick inside about things,” Larsen said, “but they just don’t have the moral courage or the political courage to stand up against what they see is happening to their own party.”

While corruption is more prevalent at the federal level, Larsen said, he sees examples of self-dealing and special favors being done at the state level, as well. Specifically, he points to the approval of the Stratos data center in Box Elder County.

Either the state needs stronger laws to protect the public, or they need to start being followed, he said.

Larsen, a self-described moderate who registered as a Republican so he could vote in the GOP primaries, said he is “hopeful” that, after the election, there will be more accountability and “guardrails” on the president.

“Typically in the United States, the opposing party of the presidency has put some guardrails on the president,” he said. “So I’m hopeful that the Democrats take charge in the House and the Senate, and that we have some level of accountability.”

Until that change comes, if it comes, Larsen sees the current political climate as frustrating and demoralizing.

“I’m angry. Nationally, I’m just really depressed about the state of affairs, less so at the state level,” he said. “I see it impacting people I love and care about. … It makes me sick. … I wonder about our values and what I hoped we stood for and what we do stand for.”

‘They Like Their Power’

As an English teacher in public schools, Shafer said she’s used to feeling like the Legislature is willing to use its power to “punish us for existing,” and not caring who gets hurt.

But now, she said, officials are making more and more decisions with utter disregard for the will of average Utahns. She includes the rushed decision to approve the Box Elder County data center, as well as the move by the Legislature and Salt Lake City to put nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer money toward a downtown sports and entertainment district.

“None of us had the chance to give any input,” she said. “Like, is this what we really want for the entire downtown area to become his vision of a sports Disneyland? … Salt Lake City has mostly Democratic control, but I feel like that was kind of corruption, too, because it was a sneaky little trick.”

Shafer, an unaffiliated voter and self-described moderate, said she thinks politicians can wield their might with impunity because too much power is in the hands of people with no sort of accountability or consequences for how they use it.

“To me, it seems like they like their power, and I just feel like it needs to be checked, because it’s just too tempting to abuse that power when you have all of it all the time,” she said.

It will take some level of partisan balance to restore the needed accountability, she said. And she is willing to vote for candidates who will stand up to the corruption, even if their other views are more extreme than her moderate leanings.

Whether this election will yield the reforms she thinks are needed remains to be seen.

“I’ve grown rather cynical,” she said, “so I don’t know whether I actually expect it to happen or not.”

‘Crooks and Cronies and People Who Break The Law’

Braydon Nemelka said it was revealing when he was approached earlier this year by paid signature gatherers trying to get him to sign a petition to try to repeal Proposition 4, the voter-passed ban on partisan gerrymandering — an example of groups with power and money trying to undo something a majority of Utah voters wanted.

“That was kind of a big, jarring thing for me,” said the 36-year-old Holladay man. “But then, seeing how everything with data centers has gone and how decisions are being made without any input of the electorate and the voters, it just seems like it’s all being decided based off of what the Republican Party wants from a national scale rather than what we as a state really want.”

He said the same kind of mentality is driving the attempts by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee and fellow Republicans to dismantle national monuments and remove protections for public lands.

“The defining feature of our state is our outdoor scenery and our national parks, and seeing how [Lee] is trying to get rid of those and free up land for outside bidders and donors,” Nemelka said, “I think there’s big personal gain for these guys and they don’t really care about what it’s going to do to our state.”

Part of it, he said, is politicians simply not listening to their constituents, but he also believes too many politicians “are trying to line their pockets by doing something that benefits them rather than the state as a whole.”

The corruption and indifference to voters is something Nemelka said he has seen more of in the last four years as “people have bent the knee” to an administration that consists of “crooks and cronies and people who break the law.”

A life-long Utahn, he said he hopes that, after Tuesday’s election, the state and federal government start to see some checks put in place to the government and some accountability restored, both at the state and federal level.

“I just think now it’s becoming more of a terrible thing,” he said, “and people really aren’t being held in check.”

‘I Wish I Were More Hopeful’

To Scott Jensen, it seems that the voters’ voices are being drowned out when money is doing all the talking.

The 67-year-old Salt Lake City resident points to effort by Republicans to undo the citizen-passed ballot initiative banning partisan gerrymandering — which received $4.3 million from a group tied to Trump and billionaire Elon Musk — as well as decisions made by the Military Installation Development Authority to approve the Box Elder data center and a ski resort development adjacent to Deer Valley.

“That seemed so crazy,” Jensen said. “I mean, it’s nothing new, but it seems more pronounced in a world where players like Musk are just leveraging their money to get what they need or want.”

He also points to the Legislature overhauling Utah’s judiciary as an example of powerful interests unwilling to accept “no” for an answer.

“Throughout time there’s been influence of money and moneyed interests and corruption at some level,” Jensen said. “But it seems like when it reaches its most blatant level — which I’m seeing nationally, but I could point to any examples locally as well — it seems concerning to me as a voter, especially a long-time voter who grew up here.”

On Tuesday, Jensen volunteered as a poll worker. He said he was chagrined that Trump’s Justice Department sent poll watchers to Salt Lake County “for some unclear reason” but praised Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson for standing up to other attempts by the administration to insert itself into Utah’s elections.

Jensen said Senate President Stuart Adams’ defeat in the Republican primary – on the heels of his role in approving the contentious Box Elder data center – was a “hopeful sign” that maybe voters want to see change.

“Maybe he’ll be replaced by people that have values that are more representative of my neighbors and my family and whomever else is really being impacted by the decisions being made,” he said.

Jensen said he isn’t sure if things will improve after the election. “I wish I were more hopeful,” he said. The pressures from artificial intelligence and social media and the tens of millions of dollars behind them seem to be creating wedges between people that make reform harder, he said.

“I think that’s just a perfect storm to really push to a breaking point that will help people rally,” he said. “I’m just hoping that happens more painlessly than I imagine it will. But it will probably need to happen.”