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.

The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Race-Based Redistricting Is a Real Head-Scratcher

Chief Justice John Roberts made a major error in judgment last week in rejecting the State of Alabama’s 2022 congressional redistricting plan in Allen v. Milligan, an error that, as dissenting Justice Samuel Alito says, puts the Voting Rights Act “on a perilous and unfortunate path.”

Von Spakovsky: The Latest Election Data Show—Once Again—That “Voter Suppression” Claim Is Just Propaganda

Numerous studies and turnout data from states that have improved the security of their election process through commonsense reforms have shown that making integrity a primary goal of the laws and regulations governing the election process does not “suppress” votes. In fact, it seems to increase voter confidence in elections, which in turn can help to increase turnout. As the U.S. Supreme Court said in 2008 when it found Indiana’s voter ID law to be constitutional and not to be a burden on voters, maintaining “public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process has independent significance, because it encourages citizen participation in the democratic process.”

Von Spakovsky: Georgia Voters Show Just How Wrong Biden and His Sycophants Are

Here is the question: When will President Joe Biden, failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred, and other denizens of the Left apologize to Georgia’s legislators, governor, and other residents? The answer is probably “Never,” despite the latest evidence of just how wrong they’ve been about Georgia’s commonsense election reforms in their outrageous claims about the state.

Von Spakovsky: Apportionment and the Census: Fundamental Fairness to U.S. Citizens and Democratic Process

Americans just voted for their representatives in the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm election, and two years ago, they completed census forms. Both of those activities are the direct result of Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution—the census clause—which directs that an “actual Enumeration” be conducted every “ten Years” of our population “in such Manner as [Congress] shall by Law direct.”

Von Spakovsky: Rank “Ranked Choice Voting” Dead Last for Georgia

Alaska and Maine have implemented “ranked choice voting,” a confusing, chaotic method of voting. Georgia should not follow suit. “Ranked choice” really should be referred to as “rigged choice,” since it effectively disenfranchises voters and allows marginal candidates not supported by a majority of voters to win elections.

Von Spakovsky: Numbers Don’t Lie: America’s Border Crisis Is Biden-Made

The Biden administration’s open-border policies and its refusal to fully enforce federal immigration laws have imposed huge costs on local communities across the country. Border states are groaning under the enormous cost of sheltering, feeding, educating, policing, and providing medical care for tens of thousands of illegal aliens.

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