The Secretary of State has insisted "elections always help" as he defended plans to call a snap Assembly poll if Stormont power-sharing is not restored by next week.
Chris Heaton-Harris said an election this winter is "not ideal" and he understood questions being raised, but he stressed that "democracy is a valuable thing".
The Northern Ireland secretary has repeatedly said he will follow through with his legal requirement to call an election if an Executive is not re-established by midnight on October 28.
Read more: December Northern Ireland Assembly election to cost £6.5m
Election officials are making plans for a potential poll on December 15, which would cost the public more than £6.5million.
Stormont has been in limbo since February with the DUP blocking the formation of the Executive and Assembly in protest over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
Speaking to reporters in Belfast on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris was questioned on what another election would achieve so soon after the last poll in May.
Mr Heaton-Harris said he believed there will be "actually quite some difference" compared to May, with voters raising issues such as healthcare and cost-of-living pressures as well as the protocol.
He said he was "confident" talks between the UK and European Union to resolve the impasse over the Irish Sea trading arrangements "will continue no matter what" during an election period.
He added: "By the time we get to December, I think people will have expressed their views to their newly elected MLAs about what the importance of all different things are, including some of the domestic matters that I said.
"I'm pretty hopeful that we can, might be able to, get somewhere different.
"Never pre-judge the outcome of an election. That's one thing I do know as a politician."
Describing himself as a "glass-half-full man", he expressed hope for progress in the coming weeks on reaching a resolution on the protocol.
He said that "everyone's been trying to work at quite some pace" to demonstrate to the unionist community "that their politicians can go back into the Executive because things are moving in this space".
Stressing that he "will be calling an election" if the Executive is not restored, he added: "They're not ideal things, elections. I do understand the premise by which lots of the questions I've been receiving on the election are coming from, but democracy is a valuable thing."
He added: "Politicians are more positive about elections than maybe media might be, but I do think we can, 1) I want an Executive formed, 2) I think there can be a solution to some of the problems at the end of it, and 3) I do believe that elections always help."
Mr Heaton-Harris also said he would examine cutting MLA pay as part of setting an emergency budget if no new Executive is established by October 28.
"When we get to doing all the making sure that the budget works, should there not be an Executive formed, I have an opportunity then to look at that," he said.
Despite Tory turmoil over Liz Truss' premiership after a series of policy U-turns, Mr Heaton-Harris said he was confident he would still be Secretary of State by next Friday.
On calls to reform Stormont's structures to stop any single party blocking power-sharing, the Northern Ireland secretary said: "I don't think it would be right for the UK Government to initiate that sort of conversation.
"But if that conversation comes from the grassroots in Northern Ireland, then I'd be interested in listening to it and framing it then."
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