March 8, 2021
Washington, DC — Heritage Action for America, a national grassroots conservative organization, today launched its first-ever state advocacy campaign to secure and strengthen state election systems, with an initial investment of $10 million and a commitment to devote whatever funding it takes to accomplish its goals.
“Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and secure elections are important to every American, said Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action. “After a year when voters’ trust in our elections plummeted, restoring that trust should be the top priority of legislators and governors nationwide. That’s why Heritage Action is deploying our established grassroots network for state advocacy for the first time ever. There is nothing more important than ensuring every American is confident their vote counts — and we will do whatever it takes to get there.”
Heritage Action will work with state governments and grassroots leaders to advance common-sense best practices to ensure their elections are secure, transparent, and give every American confidence in the electoral system. These reforms draw from The Heritage Foundation’s list of best practices to strengthen election systems and safeguard against fraud. Some important reforms include:
Regularly verifying the accuracy of voter registration lists.
Verifying citizenship of voters.
Requiring voter ID.
Limiting absentee ballots.
Prohibiting private funding of election officials and government agencies.
A group of eight states are the initial focus, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin. The initiative will include several components to promote secure elections:
An issue advocacy campaign to activate Heritage Action’s network of two million grassroots volunteers around strengthening election laws;
A “Voter Transparency” television and digital ad campaign to educate voters on reforms; and
Work with state legislatures and governors to help them adopt election law reforms.
In addition to its state efforts, Heritage Action will continue to work at the federal level to block federal overreach including the so-called “For the People” Act, H.R. 1/S. 1, which Heritage Action issued a key vote against. Heritage Action also issued a key vote cosponsorship to advance the Save Democracy Act, introduced by Rep. Jim Banks and Sen. Rick Scott, which promotes election integrity measures nationwide.
Background: In addition to its list of election-related best practices, The Heritage Foundation has also documented over one thousand incidents of criminal convictions for voter fraud at the Election Fraud Database. The database shows that some criminals have been able to exploit longstanding vulnerabilities in election systems to commit voter fraud.
Polling from McLaughlin & Associates shows an overwhelming number of Americans support election reforms like citizenship verification and photo ID requirements. Other polling shows high numbers of voters lack confidence in election fairness.