{"id":1622473,"date":"2022-08-26T07:48:09","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T11:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622473"},"modified":"2022-08-26T07:48:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T11:48:42","slug":"heritage-foundation-says-14-states-improved-their-election-integrity-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heritage-foundation-says-14-states-improved-their-election-integrity-score\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage Foundation Says 14 States Improved Their Election Integrity Score"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fheritage-foundation-says-14-states-improved-their-election-integrity-score%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622473&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Tennessee ranked No. 1 in the nation according to Heritage Foundation data<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With midterm elections approaching, 14 states have improved their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-election-integrity\">election integrity<\/a> score developed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-heritage-foundation\">Heritage Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The think tank recently released data through its online publication that ranked each state on election integrity, showing improvements on many levels since 2021. That\u2019s good news for voters who questioned the results of the 2020 election and states that took steps to make cheating more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>But Zack Smith, a Heritage Foundation legal fellow who helped develop the ranking program, told The Epoch Times there\u2019s plenty of room for improvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, no state is 100 percent or close to it,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Smith explained the Heritage Foundation developed its 100-point system using 12 categories with points assigned according to importance. The top three categories in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/electionscorecard\/pages\/all-state-scores.html\">ranking system<\/a> are accuracy of voter lists, valued at 30 points; absentee ballot management, given 21 points; and voter ID use assigned 20 points.<\/p>\n<h2>Leading in Election Integrity<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-tennessee\">Tennessee<\/a> earned the top spot in the country for election integrity after passing legislation that added five additional points to the state\u2019s total from its initial showing in 2021. According to the Heritage Foundation rankings, the Volunteer State scored 84 points out of 100.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee\u2019s rise in the rankings came after the state passed a bill that allowed election officials to use an expanded list of sources to verify the accuracy of the state\u2019s voter rolls. It received the most points for voter roll accuracy in all the states.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4047348\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/10\/13\/Tenn-voting-1229068660.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4047348\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/10\/13\/Tenn-voting-1229068660-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Voters cast their ballots during early voting at a Nashville Public Library building in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 14, 2020. (Brett Carlsen\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>Tennessee\u2019s election legislation allowed the elections coordinator to compare statewide voter registration data with credit agency data, the Department of Safety data, and the systematic alien verification for entitlements program database. The election official may also use federal jury data to identify those who are deceased, convicted felons, and non-residents of the state or United States.<\/p>\n<p>Election fraud watchdog groups have also cited the accuracy of voter rolls as the biggest problem with safeguarding elections.<\/p>\n<p>Catherine Engelbrecht, who founded the Texas-based nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-true-the-vote\">True the Vote<\/a>, told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that accurate voter rolls are critical to secure elections, which corresponds to the Heritage Foundation\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me one of the greatest concerns that linger and is yet to be addressed is the accuracy of the state voter files,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you have accurate voter rolls, it makes other kinds of fraud more difficult to be perpetrated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of the 14 states that improved, Missouri and Oklahoma added eight points each, with South Carolina earning five additional points. States that went up by three points included: Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah. Nebraska scored two points, with Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona, and West Virginia adding one point each.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3565483\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2020\/11\/04\/oklahoma-voting-1200x800.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-3565483\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/oklahoma-voting-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3565483\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/oklahoma-voting-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Voters wait in a long line to cast their ballots at Church of the Servant in Oklahoma City, Okla., Nov. 3, 2020. (Nick Oxford\/Reuters)<\/figure>\n<p>Some states, like Georgia, which ranked 2nd, and Texas, which ranked 8th, didn\u2019t show improvement because their legislatures passed laws in 2021 that were accounted for during the initial ranking, Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>While many states took steps to improve election integrity, two states lost a point: Rhode Island, ranked 19th, and Wyoming, ranked 37th.<\/p>\n<h2>Cases of Election Fraud<\/h2>\n<p>Smith said the foundation also keeps a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/voterfraud\">database of election fraud<\/a> cases across the country. While it is not meant to be exhaustive, the 1,300 cases listed indicated that voter fraud is not imaginary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou hear from the folks on the left a lot that fraud doesn\u2019t really happen. One of the companion products we have is our election fraud database. I think it kind of pushes back against that narrative that election fraud doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-darlene-sanchez\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/WEB_DarleneSanchez.jpg\" alt=\"Darlene McCormick Sanchez\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tennessee ranked No. 1 in the nation according to Heritage Foundation dataWith midterm elections approaching, 14 states have improved their election integrity score developed by the Heritage Foundation. The think<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1622476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1622476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}