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: White House “Cleansing” of El Paso Akin to 1936 Berlin Olympics

By |2023-03-06T11:33:40-05:00February 7th, 2023|

Some have compared the cleansing in El Paso, Texas, before President Biden’s border visit to the fake villages that Grigory Potemkin is said to have set up along a route traveled by Catherine the Great. Those fake villages were intended to fool Catherine by hiding the truly horrible conditions. The more apt comparison is to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, which, like what happened in El Paso with the full knowledge of the president and his advisers, was designed to fool the public.

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

By |2023-03-06T11:33:41-05:00February 7th, 2023|

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

By |2023-03-06T11:33:41-05:00February 7th, 2023|

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: Election Fraud Database Tops 1,400 Cases

By |2023-03-06T11:33:42-05:00February 7th, 2023|

The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database now includes 1,412 proven instances of election fraud, and our legal center is monitoring many other ongoing prosecutions. The database, which provides a sampling of recent election fraud cases, demonstrates the vulnerabilities within the electoral process and the need for reforms to secure free and fair elections for the American people.

Von Spakovsky: FEC Needs To Reopen Twitter Probe Now That Documents Musk Released Show Company May Have Outright Lied

By |2023-03-06T11:33:47-05:00January 13th, 2023|

The Federal Election Commission is responsible for enforcing the act that governs the raising and spending of money in federal campaigns. Last year, the commission dismissed a complaint filed against Twitter and its executives that claimed they had violated federal law. Given the recent public disclosures of internal as well as external Twitter communications with campaign and party organizations, the FEC should reopen that investigation. It must determine if that dismissal was based on false information provided by Twitter.

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

By |2023-06-29T19:08:30-04:00January 12th, 2023|

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

By |2023-03-06T11:33:48-05:00January 12th, 2023|

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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