How Does 2024 Presidential Election Look Compared to 2020?

Something happened during the 2020 presidential election, but no one seems to know – or will admit – what it was. Whatever it was, it caused most Americans to be less sure of the integrity of elections. Hans von Spakovsky believes that reviewing the 2023 election can help us to expect in the 2024 presidential election. 

Von Spakovsky wrote that the legislators of some states acted to ensure secure and honest election, while other states did nothing or made matters “worse by failing to implement effective practices for accurately administering voter registration, the casting of votes, and the tabulation and reporting of results.”

According to von Spakovsky, The Heritage Foundation launched an Election Integrity Scorecard in 2021, which “grades the election laws and procedures of all 50 states and the District of Columbia according to 47 different best-practices criteria developed in consultation with trust election experts.” The procedures, or “best practices,” include “everything from how to ensure an accurate, up-to-date, statewide voter registration list, to handling absentee or mail-in ballots, to the access given to poll observers to guarantee transparency in the election process.”

The top score is a perfect 100, which no state scored. Tennessee received the highest current score of 88, with Georgia second (84), and Missouri third (83).

Von Spakovsky wrote that there were several positive things that came out of the 2020 election. The first positive aspect was awakening of many state legislators to “the vulnerabilities in our election system.” For example, two of the top three states – Tennessee (6 points) and Missouri (10 points – improved their scores with state legislators passing “needed election reforms” after the debut of the scorecard in 2021.

The second unseen benefit took place with an October 17, 2023, referendum election in Louisiana. “Voters there overwhelmingly approved an amendment to their constitution banning all private and foreign funding of state and local election offices and election administration.”

Allowing partisan donors to attempt to manipulate election officials and election rules through political donations is an obvious danger. Fortunately, Louisiana followed more than two dozen states in banning such funding.

According to von Spakovsky, some states have done nothing to reform their elections. Those states include Hawaii, Nevada, and California (all with Democrat legislatures), which “sit at the bottom of The Heritage Foundation’s scorecard with embarrassing scores of only 26, 28, and 30, respectively.” With no action on the part of the legislators to improve election integrity, “public confidence in the election process” suffers.

In fact, when Democratic-led cities like New York and the District of Columbia pass ordinances allowing foreign nationals to vote in their elections, public confidence takes a hit. Most Americans believe that only citizens, who have the responsibilities that go along with citizenship, should be voting and making decisions about how we are governed.

Lawsuits filed by opponents of election reform do not help the situation because they oppose everything that would bring even a little security to the election process. In fact, “There are numerous meritless lawsuits in progress across the country in which basic, long-held, traditional practices are being attacked.” Those practices being attacked include “voter ID requirements, which voters support wholeheartedly, and other security procedures, such as requiring witnesses and voter signature comparison on absentee ballots.”

Sensible state bans on ballot trafficking are also being attacked in the courts. Ballot trafficking is the practice of allowing third-party strangers to pick up and deliver an individual’s absentee or mail-in ballot. Giving candidates, their campaign staffers, political consultants, and party activists – all of whom have a stake in the outcome of the election – access to voters’ ballots is a very bad idea. It invites fraud, coercion, and intimidation of voters.

Yet reform opponents are suing to get such trafficking prohibitions overturned, making the absurd claim that they’re discriminatory. Yet they only discriminate against bad actors willing to misbehave in the election process.

Spakovsky predicts that 2024 will bring “changes made by some state legislatures intent on improving the election process,” while “other states may make changes that weaken the security of that process.” He also predicts that those who oppose “commonsense election integrity reforms will continue to file lawsuits attacking positive changes.” The decisions on the viability of the lawsuits will come “right up until the election.”

Spakovsky’s overall prediction is that “many parts of the country will be in better shape in 2024 than they were in 2020 when it comes to the security of their elections.” There may be enough state legislators acting to secure their elections that they will be able to save America and the American way of life. May God bless America and soften the hearts of all people who are seeking to destroy our nation.