Heritage Foundation Ranks WA State 46th out of 51 in Election Integrity

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To help voters, legislators, election officials, and Americans who are interested in ensuring a fair and secure election process, The Heritage Foundation has published an Election Integrity Scorecard, which compares the election laws and regulations of each state and the District of Columbia that affect the security and integrity of the process to the Foundation's best-practices recommendations.

Their report, updated June 4, 2025, was compiled by examining factors such as voter ID implementation, accuracy of voter lists, absentee ballot management, verification of citizenship, and other relevant attributes.

Not surprisingly, Washington State remained one of the worst states in the country, ranking 46th (including DC). Only Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, California, and Hawaii ranked worse.

Arkansas, led by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, moved up from No. 8 and earned the No. 1 ranking. Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said, "States across the country should follow Arkansas' lead by implementing these critical election reforms that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

Thank you to the Heritage Foundation for doing the research and publishing their report. Americans need and deserve elections that they can trust. Legitimate voters should be able to vote securely in the knowledge that their vote will not be lost, stolen, altered, or negated by a vote cast by an illegitimate voter.

We must prevent any vote from being erased by a fraudulent ballot. Fraudulent votes disenfranchise voters by offsetting and diluting their votes.

Currently, our system has numerous vulnerabilities that make election fraud easy to commit and difficult to detect, either before or after the fact. Not only does fraud diminish voters’ say in their government, but it also diminishes their faith in the integrity of the “elected” leaders in power.

Our elections need to be a transparent system in which fraud can be easily detected and erroneous allegations of fraud can be easily dispelled. A system in which it is easy to vote and hard to cheat!

One practical and straightforward solution and improvement for Washington State would be to support a new Citizens' Initiative filed by WAGOP Chairman and State Representative Jim Walsh.

The Proposed Initiative to the 2026 Legislature: AN ACT Relating to requiring verification of citizenship for voter registration, is taken from HB 1585, a 2025 Republican proposed bill that Rep. Walsh Co-sponsored with Rep. Matt Marshall and several other State Republican Legislators that Requires Proof of Citizenship BEFORE PEOPLE REGISTER TO VOTE. This important Initiative is now official with/ IL26-126.

A citizens’ initiative is a process in which citizens can propose and vote on legal measures, thereby bypassing their state legislature. The initiative will be put out for signatures this summer and fall, and could become law next year in time for the 2026 Midterm elections.

To be certified, signatures of at least 308,911 registered voters must be gathered and submitted no later than 5:00 pm on January 2, 2026.

Thank you to Chair Walsh for IL26-126, as it is an important security measure and a significant step toward Election Integrity reform in Washington State.

Also, please make it a priority to support the many good candidates and representatives (at all levels of government) advocating for Election Integrity!

Bill Bruch

Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Committee Chairman (5th year), WAGOP Executive Board Member (5th Year), Skagit County GOP Chairman (9th year), Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 and 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate.