Hans von Spakovsky

About Hans von Spakovsky

Hans von Spakovsky is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on elections and election reform. He is manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow in Heritage’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He is the co-author with John Fund of the book “Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” (Encounter Books, 2012). Before joining Heritage in 2008, Mr. von Spakovsky served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission, the authority charged with enforcing campaign finance laws for congressional and presidential elections, including public funding. He has served on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and on the Fulton County (Ga.) Board of Registrations and Elections. He is a former vice chairman of the Fairfax County (Va.) Electoral Board and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Board to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. A 1984 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law, Mr. von Spakovsky received his B.S. degree in 1981 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Von Spakovsky: Latest Cases of Election Fraud Underline Need for Vigilance and Action

Election integrity continues to be an important issue to citizens across the country, regardless of their political affiliation. While many politicians on the left continue to downplay the issue of election fraud to the dismay of their constituents, threats to free and fair elections continue at an alarming rate,

By |2022-05-23T17:53:35+00:00May 23rd, 2022|

Von Spakovsky: Efforts to bar reelection bids are unconstitutional

The effort to have members of Congress barred from having their names on ballots based on claims that they participated in an “insurrection” on Jan. 6 or objected to electoral votes should fail. Congress permanently eliminated the insurrection disqualification in the 14th Amendment in amnesty acts that are still in force today, and the objections to the electoral votes were filed in accordance with federal law. All of these efforts and threats are a desperate attempt to gain political advantage through unconstitutional actions. They are a waste of time and resources and should be dismissed as such.

By |2022-03-27T13:01:34+00:00March 27th, 2022|

The Left Strikes Again at Freedom of Speech in Akron, Ohio — Election Integrity is “Off Limits”

The League of Women Voters took issue with the Roundtable inviting me to speak. Its local chapter president, Rosanne Winter, sent the Roundtable a letter expressing the group’s “strong disappointment,” and protesting my choice as a speaker. The Roundtable should select “respected speakers,” said the League, by which it clearly means only those who don’t disagree with the League.

By |2022-03-27T12:43:34+00:00March 27th, 2022|

Hans von Spakovsky: Election Law Landscape in Constant Flux Ahead of Midterms

In 2020, we saw more lawsuits filed over election laws and rule changes than in any prior year of American history. And with the congressional midterms fast approaching, litigation and other developments just keep coming.

By |2022-02-17T00:24:54+00:00February 17th, 2022|

Von Spakovsky: Media Attacks Florida’s Governor for Proposing to Go After Election Crimes

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a good idea with his budget proposal to create an “election crimes agency” that would “investigate election crimes and irregularities and make referrals for further legal action directly to a statewide prosecutor.” Florida should implement it, and other states should follow. In fact, state legislators should make sure that a statewide prosecutor’s office has jurisdiction to prosecute all such election cases, especially when local prosecutors fail to act.

By |2022-02-02T23:48:44+00:00February 2nd, 2022|

It’s Illegal to Ration COVID-19 Treatments Based on Race

In New York, officials have made drugs automatically available only to people who meet one of several eligibility criteria, which include being “nonwhite.” In Minnesota, the Department of Health is “deprioritizing access” to treatment for Americans who happen to be Caucasian.

By |2022-01-12T14:01:25+00:00January 12th, 2022|

Von Spakovsky: Lost Ballots in 3 States Exceed Biden’s Victory Margins

Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said president Joe Biden’s margins of victory in Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin in the 2020 presidential election were narrower than the states’ respective totals of unaccounted-for ballots.

By |2021-09-07T14:26:26+00:00September 7th, 2021|

Von Spakovsky: Texas Gets Election Reform Right, Mainstream Media Gets It Wrong

The Texas Legislature passed the state’s election reform package, SB 1, designed to protect voters by fixing vulnerabilities in the registration and election system. This happened only when Democrats finally returned to the state after fleeing to the nation’s capital in May to avoid the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

By |2021-09-03T19:30:25+00:00September 3rd, 2021|

Hans von Spakovsky: Texas Democrats’ outrageous claims about election reforms have no connection to reality

Texas Democrats held a press conference on Friday in Alexandria, Va., across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, to continue their lies about the election reforms being proposed in the special session of the Texas legislature called by Gov. Greg Abbott. The session has been unable to start because they fled the state, denying a quorum in the legislature. As I have already explained in a previous op-ed for Fox News, the misleading and outrageous claims they have made and that they repeated at the press conference about the reforms have no connection whatsoever to reality.

By |2021-07-19T22:18:09+00:00July 19th, 2021|

Hans von Spakovsky: Merrick Garland’s misleading voting claims – what AG gets wrong about US elections | Fox News

Partisan, political, designed to inflame. That’s what Merrick Garland’s recent speech on voting rights was. It certainly was not objective, measured and deliberate – the kind of speech you expect from an attorney general. What’s worse, his central assertion – that state efforts to improve the integrity of the election process will make it "harder" for eligible citizens to vote – is demonstrably false.

By |2021-06-29T12:10:47+00:00June 29th, 2021|
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