Will elections finally be secure and honest in 2024?

 Looking back at what happened on the ballot in 2023 can give us a better idea of what to expect in next year's presidential election.

Legislators in many states reformed procedures to ensure safe and honest elections. But other states either failed to act or failed to implement effective practices to accurately manage voter registration, vote casting, and the tabulation and reporting of results.

In 2021, the Heritage Foundation launched an Election Integrity Scorecard, which grades the election laws and procedures of all 50 states and the District of Columbia according to 47 different best practice criteria developed in consultation with trusted elections experts.

Those best practices include everything from ensuring 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.

No state scored a full 100 points. The top state in the country is Tennessee with a current score of 88, followed by Georgia (84) and Missouri (83).

One silver lining of the controversy over the 2020 election: It finally made many state legislators aware of some of the weaknesses in our election system. By the end of this year, Tennessee had improved its score by six points, and Missouri had improved by 10 points since the scorecard debuted in 2021 after state legislators passed necessary election reforms.

Another positive development in 2023 was the outcome of the October 17 referendum election in Louisiana. Voters there overwhelmingly approved an amendment to its constitution banning all private and foreign funding of state and local election offices and election administration.

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

Unfortunately, some states have refused to take any steps to reform their elections. These include Democrat legislatures like Hawaii, Nevada and California, which rank at the bottom of the Heritage Foundation's scorecard with embarrassing scores of only 26, 28 and 30, respectively. They are not taking any necessary steps to increase public confidence in the election process.

Indeed, when Democratic-led cities like New York and the District of Columbia pass ordinances allowing foreign nationals to vote in their elections, public confidence is shaken. Most Americans believe that citizens alone should vote and decide how we are governed.

The lawsuit filed by election-reform opponents doesn't help the situation. They appear to oppose any measure that helps provide even the slightest security to the election process.

There are countless lawsuits ongoing across the country in which basic, long-standing, traditional practices are being attacked. These include voter ID requirements, which voters wholeheartedly support, and other security procedures, such as requiring witnesses and comparing voter signatures on absentee ballots.

Sensitive state restrictions on ballot smuggling are also being attacked in the courts. Ballot smuggling is the practice of allowing third-party strangers to pick up and deliver a person's absentee or mail-in ballot. Giving candidates, their campaign staff, political consultants and party workers – who have a stake in the outcome of the election – access to voters' ballots is a very bad idea. This invites voter fraud, coercion and intimidation.

Yet reform opponents are suing to overturn such trafficking bans, making absurd claims that they are discriminatory. Yet they discriminate only against the bad guys willing to abuse the electoral process.

So, what is the perspective for 2024? We will continue to look at changes made by some state legislatures intended to improve the election process. But other states may make changes that weaken the security of that process.

Opponents of common sense election integrity reforms will continue to file lawsuits attacking positive changes, and we will undoubtedly receive court decisions on their feasibility throughout the year, leading up to the election.

Overall, when it comes to election security, many parts of the country will be in a better position in 2024 than in 2020. The 2020 election had the highest turnout in a presidential election in decades, and given what may be at stake in 2024, we could have another record-setting election.