In this episode of Who’s Counting?, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Spakosvky talks with Cleta about the current state of Heritage’s Election Integrity Scorecard, a comprehensive index of state election laws – and the progress (or failure to advance) by the states since the scorecard was first released in December 2021.
Hans and his team based their analyses of the states’ laws on numerous aspects including voter ID, absentee ballot verification, voter roll maintenance, bans of private funding of election offices, whether a state protects legislative authority over election laws, and whether the election code is protected from legal attacks by the vast leftwing legal assault machine, and many other components.
As legislatures change election laws, for good or for ill, the Scorecard is regularly updated.
According to the Scorecard, Tennessee and Georgia have the best laws on their books, with Hawaii and Nevada the worst. How does your state rate? But never forget: a state can have a great election code, but there is NO election integrity if the laws are not followed or enforced.
This Election Integrity Scorecard is an important tool for helping citizens assess the election statutes in their states – and to help guide legislative changes where there are shortfalls.
Individual citizens’ engagement is essential for ensuring elections are conducted in a manner consistent with the law. The more we all know, the better we are able to hold both legislators and election officials accountable for ensuring that the basic framework for integrity is established by statutes….and then followed at election time.
