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.”

By |2023-06-22T11:33:48-04:00June 22, 2023|ACRU Commentary, Elections, OPED, Redistricting|

Von Spakovsky: Election Integrity and the American Republic

Election integrity and voter fraud have become so controversial that even if you try to discuss them rationally and reasonably, and cite incontrovertible evidence, you will likely be banned by social media platforms and labelled a conspiratorial vote suppressor by the major media organizations that dominate our airwaves.

Supreme Court Examines Whether Alabama’s Congressional Districts Violate Voting Rights Act

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which took center stage Tuesday during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, prohibits a state from imposing a “standard, practice, or procedure” that “results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color … .” Courts have found that states violate this provision when they draw new legislative districts that dilute the voting power of minority voters by either packing as many of these voters as possible into a single district or by splitting these voters among various other districts—practices known as “packing” and “cracking” voters.

By |2022-10-08T10:13:52-04:00October 8, 2022|ACRU Commentary, Elections, OPED, Vote Fraud|

Von Spakovsky: Lawsuit Continues Against Benson Over Dead on Voter Rolls

Culling dead individuals from Michigan voter rolls is a pretty basic task for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Now Judge Jane M. Beckering, an appointee of President Joe Biden, has rejected Benson’s demand to dismiss a lawsuit filed against her claiming she refused to remove almost 26,000 dead individuals from the state’s voter rolls.

Von Spakovsky: Federal Government’s Bungled Census Bad News for Red States. Here’s Why.

If a politician from Florida decides to run for president in 2024, his (or her) home state will be short two votes in the Electoral College, and when the new session of the U.S. House of Representatives convenes in January 2023, Florida will be missing two congressional seats to which it is entitled. Why? Because according to a post-2020 census survey, the U.S. Census Bureau significantly undercounted the population of Florida, as well as Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. At the same time, it overcounted the population of eight states, all but one of which is a blue state.

By |2022-09-08T12:35:51-04:00September 8, 2022|ACRU Commentary, Elections, OPED|

Von Spakovsky: Voter Fraud Cases Continue to Occur

We recently added nine new cases to the Heritage Election Fraud Database, bringing the total number of entries of proven instances of voter fraud in the database to 1,374. The mounting collection of cases continue to disprove the narrative that voter fraud is not real and that further election integrity measures are not needed.

Von Spakovsky: Census Bureau Admits Overcounting 7 Blue States, Just 1 Red State

In a shocking report, the U.S. Census Bureau recently admitted that it overcounted the populations of eight states and undercounted the populations of six states in the 2020 census. All but one of the states overcounted is a blue state, and all but one of the undercounted states is red.

By |2022-09-02T18:09:03-04:00August 25, 2022|ACRU Commentary, Elections, OPED|

Von Spakovsky: Ahead of Midterms, 14 States Improve Election Integrity Laws

With primaries underway and with midterms and other fall ballot contests looming, multiple states are demonstrating a commitment to ensuring that their elections remain worthy of public confidence.

By |2022-08-20T11:25:28-04:00August 20, 2022|ACRU Commentary, Elections, OPED, Vote Fraud|

von Spakovsky: Non-citizens voting in California: Judge says no, even in left-wing state

Sometimes, common sense can prevail – even in far-out California. Last week, California Superior Court Judge Richard B. Ulmer Jr. ruled that only U.S. citizens have the right to vote. In this, he echoed an earlier ruling by the New York Supreme Court.

The Latest Federal Takeover of Elections Violates Federal Law

Democrats haven’t stopped trying to take over elections, they just have new tactics to do so under voters’ noses.Employees throughout the federal government who are carrying out President Joe Biden’s executive order directing them to get involved in state elections are likely all violating the Anti-Deficiency Act, besides interfering in the election process and using federal resources in what seems to be a get-out-the-vote operation for the party in power in the White House.

Go to Top