In a presidential election year like 2024, it’s natural that the concerns of voters and state legislators should turn to the security of their elections. And turn they did.
Where legislators and voters set to work on elections, they generally improved the integrity of the procedures we use to choose our representatives.
Since 2021, The Heritage Foundation has been tracking the laws of every state (and the District of Columbia) governing the conduct of elections—local, state, and federal—and ranking them in its Election Integrity Scorecard: 2024 saw 11 states improve their total election-integrity scores: Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, only two states, Arizona and Nebraska, and the District of Columbia saw their scores decline.
Among the year’s more interesting changes are those from Nevada, one of which resulted in immediate gains while others hold great promise for the future if ultimately enacted.
Nevada—among the worst performing states since the scorecard was released—gained one point this past November, when 53% of its voters defeated a referendum that would have made ranked choice voting the norm in the state.
Ranked choice voting is an opaque and error-prone process, one that multiplies the challenges for election administrators far more than it delivers on its illusory promise of fairer outcomes.
Additionally, 73% of Nevada voters resoundingly endorsed two new measures that would require voters to present a photo ID to vote in person and to provide a unique identifying number such as that found on a driver’s license or Social Security card if voting by mail. To become state law, however, Nevada voters must confirm their support for these voter-ID measures in the next referendum, scheduled for 2026.
In one sense, Nevadans’ responses to these referendums were unsurprising. At those same polls, 50.6% of Nevadans gave the state’s six electoral votes to Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of secure elections. But in another sense, the matter is hardly clear-cut. Nevada’s U.S. Senate race was decided for the Democratic candidate as were three of the state’s four U.S. House races, indicating that basic election security is a concern cutting across party lines, which would be a positive development in and of itself.
While the state continues to lag its peers in several important areas, these improvements are nonetheless notable.
Elsewhere, states that were already strong on election integrity continued their improving ways in 2024. Arkansas concluded agreements with three other states to share voter info in a manner that will help prevent duplicative, cross-state registrations of voters.
The state also pledged to report annually to its Legislature on improvements to the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls. Those earned Arkansas two points.
Indiana enacted a law, HB 1264, enabling election officials to use commercial data from credit agencies to verify voter registrations and jury information to verify citizenship status of would-be voters.
Ohio did its part by requiring election officials to use the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program and state jury information to confirm the citizenship status of registered voters.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin voters endorsed an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting any private funding of election administration and earning the state a net 2-point rating improvement for the year.
Fights over ranked choice voting occurred outside of Nevada with a variety of outcomes. Missouri voters banned the practice outright, D.C. voters adopted it, and Alaska voters failed to repeal it.
Bills concerning noncitizen voting were a favorite of state legislatures this year. At least 11 states enacted legislation or amended their constitutions to prevent noncitizen voting.
It’s a little disconcerting that these measures are even necessary. One would think it self-evident that only citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections. After all, if no distinction is made between a citizen and a foreigner for purposes of political action, then nationhood itself is in serious jeopardy.
Regrettably, two states (and the District of Columbia) had net declines in their overall election-integrity scores.
The District lost a point when it adopted ranked choice voting through a November ballot referendum. Nebraska lost a point when it allowed same-day voter registration for persons naturalized as citizens after the voter registration deadline. And Arizona netted a 1-point decrease when it permitted the acceptance of certain mail-in ballots with a signature but no ID.
The changes in 2024 produced few shifts in the overall rankings. Tennessee remains atop the list with 90 points out of 100. Arkansas enjoyed the most notable rise from seventh place to a tie for fifth place with Oklahoma at 82 points. Hawaii remains in the basement with 27 points.
This year will not feature electoral fireworks. Only New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors. Still, it would be a mistake for legislatures to let their interest in elections wane. Elections run better when they are prepared for well in advance.
Hopefully, legislators will take the opportunity to enact positive reforms, such as those outlined in the “Model Legislation” section of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, in the months to come.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Jack Fitzhenry.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
I encourage you to research the Lindell Legal Offense Fund, which fielded a network of more than 300,000 election observers and lawyers. The organization identified 700+ election sites where some sort of fraud was detected.
It was surely better election integrity than 2020, the last 4 years saw our worst fears when an election is stolen. This time we had to make it too big to rig. We need to make election integrity even stronger and get all the states in-line to have voter ID. When you have left wing Democrats who will do whatever it takes to win, which includes cheating and political warfare to stop opponents. Now that Republicans are in control, we need to make laws that will prevent this in the future. MAGA!
IMO, Election Integrity has been driven by grassroots direct efforts and by their nagging of timid Republicans, saying, “We’ll primary you out if you don’t vote for voter ID!” The GOP Establishment has never promoted election integrity efforts introduced by nonprofits that don’t monetize the GOP. Georgia is a good example, where the win was secured by the efforts of VOTERGA and others, especially their exposure of the easily cheatable Dominion voting machines, now declared illegal under Georgia law.(However Dominion still used, thanks to RINO SoS Brad Rathensburger, who wants to be governor. Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, is also a 2020 election fraud denier and actually sabotaged two expensive election integrity seminars in Savannah. Turning Point lost Kari Lake the election for AZ Governor because they put zero effort into the dull work of clearing voter rolls and monitoring polls. In Chatham County, a RINO Election Board member has filed a lawsuit trying to block reforms that helped Trump win in Georgia. So maybe RINOs are the New Democrat Party!
We will never have legal elections when the voters are not in agreement about what constitutes a legal vote. It started with Absentee ballots then mail in ballots then no ID necessary to vote. Then no verification when voting by mail. Then rank voting came into the mix which is so difficult to explain that fraud is built into the system. As long as voters allow people to walk across the border without being vetted, checked for diseases and criminal backgrounds. It will be chaos during elections. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. The plan of the dems is full of holes. A group in China could vote in our election and they could skew it to the candidate they would like to see in the White House. When political parties start gnawing at the laws on the books it’s a problem. That grows and grows. Right now we are at a crossroad can it be repaired? Or will it in 4 years under another regime changed again? They say everything is always in flux. But it doesn’t have to be. Only the dems started with the great globalization the WEF wants. And the Billionaires that run the WEF run America. And that is the problem Trump and MAGA are fighting. Only many woke sheep have not seen what is coming behind all this infighting between the ultra left and the common sense right. The ink wasn’t even dry on the Birthright EO and the Dem AG’s were in court, of course the judge stopped it. Soros judge in a dem state. He didn’t look as to why Trump signed this EO. Illegal people who have a baby in America have no right to citizenship even the fourteenth amendment mentions alien. Resident aliens with a green card should have priority over those that come here give birth and go back to their respective countries. No other country in the world allows this. This is a plan of the WEF to globalize the world and since America has allowed this for over a 125 years it was easy to start this fight here in the courts. The judge just like with the fraud cases they dismissed them out of hand and this case the same. It should go as far as a referendum vote of the 14th amendment. We have a different paradigm then 125 years ago.
Despite endless claims to the contrary by the Democrats and their media whores, the Democrats have not had majority popular or voter support since the 1960s. So how do they win elections, you ask. Very simple: they cheat. The history books tell us that the Democrats have been using voter registration and election fraud since the 1850s – yes, you read that right. They have been cheating on elections to an ever-increasing degree as their overall support has gradually decreased over the last several decades. The Democrats fight tooth and nail to prevent the implementation of any sort of election integrity measures, especially one requiring Voter ID. Any sort of election integrity will mean that the Democrats will never again win a national-level election, and they know it. The sooner such measures can be implemented, the sooner this country will be saved from the damage the Democrats cause whenever they are in control.
Good. Those who take voting seriously deserve fair elections.
Tennessee ranked number 1, UH-RAH.
Make rulings apply nationwide
!4th Amendment: in elections for President, VP, Representatives and Senators, and State elections for Legislature, Executives and Judicial, ONLY citizens of 21 years or older (changed to 18 in Amendment 26) are eligible to vote; THIS IS clearly a dictate in the Constitution to have “positive ID” as to age and citizenship for each voter casting a vote for the specified Office. There is NO NEED for a voter ID law, this Federal Law covering all the States already exists and is superior to any State law under Article 6. Congress under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment NEEDS to codify that dictate of positive ID for age and citizenship nationally and enforce it with “appropriate legislation” as specified.
election fraud was at the forefront in the 2024 election.looks as if the republican right has come through , using the legal system. differing with democratic left,who use social engineering, brain washing, via the media, and mass marketing to achieve it’s communist goals.
Democrats only survive through voter fraud! LBJ and JFK both won fraudulent elections-LBJ foe his first House election and JFK for both his primary and 1960 presidential election [orchestrated by his reprobate father]. William Daley of Chicago ran a machine which always got plenty of votes from cemeteries. Boss Tweed of NYC was one of their original fraudsters!
What Alaska needs is for the candidate with the most votes to win. Ranked Choice Voting does not do this. We don’t need over 50% as the standard. Now that the effort to correct this error has failed we need a new strategy. Right now we are dithering.
The election fraud of 2020 needlessly forced a full term of the incomparibly incompetent and corrupt Biden. This is a measure of the true disaster potential of a fraudulent election, and it must NEVER happen again. Given the Atlanta and Philadelphia polling place videos, and the vote counts in rural MI and PA that defied the demographics, there is no countering the fact of massive, coordinated fraud having been planned and committed.
Clean out all voter roles
Ban all electronic voting equipment
Voter ID with paper ballots and hand count
Ban mail in voting with a few exceptions
Ban early voting
Smaller precincts
Ban ballot harvesting
Election day as a holiday
New transparent reporting
Extreme prison sentence with heavy fines for committing voter or voting fraud
Arizona is a corrupt state, so I made sure to volunteer as a poll observer and stayed late for an official count. Nothing untoward happened on my watch. We need more conservatives to do this because Democrats are basically despicable people who have no compunction at cheating. They are like Muslims with infidels, there are no noble rules.
There’s still a few things that we need to secure our elections, but know that in time evil people will learn how to get power and control.
Here’s a couple improvements that can help. Voters registration across the country are outdated and are used for maladministration or outright fraud in various ways. We must get and keep these updated.
Another is paper ballots with specific paper that is marked as they are now. Jovan pulitzer’s kinematic artifact detection for forensic audit of Maricopa county found many problems, or illegal actions in which everyone should see his findings. This was happening in other states, but the full forensic audits of other places were blocked… go figure
Who is responsible for the integrity of the voting machines and many states have strange algorithms going on. It all should be investigated and voter fraud and facilitators must be prosecuted to deter it!
Whoever cheats on a election is definitely not patriotic, not to mention opening this country’s border to the world for a free for all.
Did anyone else get an email from AMAC (airport minority advisory comm) . It looks like it came from AMAC but I have never heard of before. Is this spam or part of AMAC?