Southern GOP states reportedly have the highest “election integrity.”
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas lead a list of states on the Heritage Foundation scorecard that tested balloting and voting rules to find those that run the fairest systems.
“The right to free and fair elections and to having every legal vote count is one of the most basic civil rights in our republic,” the Heritage Foundation report stated.
The states at the bottom of the list were reported as Hawaii, Nevada, and California.
President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware ranks 32nd, with 52 of 100 points on the Heritage scoreboard that includes voter identification implementation, the accuracy of voter lists, absentee ballot management, vote harvesting restrictions, and verification of citizenship, the Washington Examiner, which first reported the listing, noted.
In February, the Heritage Foundation issued what it called an election fraud database. Among its suggestions were that private interest groups should not be allowed to provide funds to local election authorities to defray the cost of elections — and that rules governing the conduct of elections should not be changed shortly before an election.
According to a report last July from New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, legislatures in 18 states have passed 30 bills that tighten voter access, with more than 400 bills with similar provisions having been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.
At least 25 states enacted 54 laws with provisions to expand voting access.
“[Voting laws are] definitely percolating as a more mainstream issue, but that’s because there were wholesale changes made without going through the legislative process, using COVID as the rationale for why. That has awakened the public,” GOP Arizona State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who’s running to oversee elections as secretary of state, told The Hill at the time.
