Hawaii No. 8 For Electoral Integrity

The integrity of America’s electoral system lags far behind other Western democracies, according to a new report.

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Donald Trump’s election as president — despite having lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton and all sorts of concerns about hacking and lying — has got many folks wondering how good America’s election system really is.

A new report by the Electoral Integrity Project says the integrity of our electoral system “lags far behind other Western democracies.”

“Overall, the U.S. electoral system has about as much integrity as those in Argentina, Mongolia and Rwanda,” according to the joint project from Harvard University and the University of Sydney.

Hey — what happened to the 49th and 50th?

Electoral Integrity Project

Here’s what we know, according to a news report on the report:

The study surveyed more than 700 American political scientists on the perceived integrity of their states’ electoral systems. The experts were asked to rate the state’s performance on everything from election laws and procedures to district boundaries, voter registration and campaign finance laws.

Unlike many other Western democracies, there is wide variance in the integrity of individual systems in American states, which have the constitutional authority to administer elections, draw their own district lines and set rules that govern voter access.

The survey says Vermont has the best electoral system in the United States while Arizona and Wisconsin ranked at the bottom.

Hawaii is at No. 8 in the rankings. We scored best for how we handle electoral procedures, and worst for — oddly enough — media coverage.

(Looks like somebody’s not reading Civil Beat. We live, breathe and eat elections.)

The study also includes a map that does not include Hawaii and Alaska, even though they are surveyed. Sad! One simply expects more from HA-verd.

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