The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database shows that election fraud does occur in American elections. Errors, omissions, and mistakes by election officials and careless, shoddy election practices and procedures or lack of training can cause and have caused problems for voters and candidates. While there is no accurate information on the extent of these problems, the number of instances in which such issues have occurred and are occurring demonstrates clearly the vulnerabilities in our current patchwork system across the states. The following recommendations of best practices have been developed by Heritage Foundation experts based on long experience in the area of election integrity. These recommendations are intended principally for state legislatures, which under our federal system have the primary responsibility for administering elections.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The public must have trust in the outcome of our elections. That goal is elusive in large part because of the vulnerabilities that currently exist.
Rules governing the conduct of elections, which are constitutionally entrusted to the various state legislatures, should not be changed shortly before an election.
Private interest groups of whatever partisan affiliation should not be allowed to provide funds to local election authorities to defray the cost of elections.