American voters deserve secure elections. Protecting legal votes and legal voters is integral to preserving our form of representative government. Without safeguards against error, fraud, and interference, public trust in elections declines. When abuse occurs, legal voters are effectively disenfranchised.
Safeguarding elections means requiring voter identification requirements for eligibility, ensuring accurate voter rolls, requiring excellent election administration, and supporting proper election infrastructure security.
A. American voters support proving their identity at the polls.
B. Identity verification must be applied to both in-person and mail-in ballot voting.
C. Voter roll maintenance is optional for states.
A. TRUTH! Polling from different sources, across different years, shows time and time again that Americans want voters to prove their identity at the polls. A 2024 Gallup survey found that 84% of Americans support requiring all voters to provide a photo ID to vote, and 83% support requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote. This obviously spans political parties and demographics in order to reach such a consensus. A 2024 Monmouth University poll found similarly strong support at 80%. These policies are not fringe or partisan. And yet, this public opinion has not translated into corresponding laws. As of 2025, 36 states have enacted some form of voter ID law, of which only eight require photo identification with no alternative.
B. TRUTH! Mail-in voting has expanded dramatically since 2020, making identity verification for absentee ballots much more urgent. Currently, most states require at least some form of signature matching for mail ballots, but a much more secure policy is requiring a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when requesting a mail ballot.
Unfortunately, only five states have implemented this law. Mail-in ballots are processed without the same in-person, bipartisan oversight occurring at polling places, which means that robust verification is the best mechanism available to confirm that a mailed ballot was completed by the actual registered voter it is supposed to have come from.
C. LIE! Federal law requires that election records be retained for at least 22 months following a federal election. Without complete records, post-election audits are impossible, litigation is hampered, and public transparency evaporates. Jurisdictions that allow records to be destroyed, overwritten, or inadequately preserved are not merely violating federal law; they are avoiding accountability.
Bottom Line:
The objective of the policies securing elections is to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat, while protecting all legal votes and voters. Voter identification requirements are a foundational safeguard. Accurate voter rolls are equally essential. Election administration must be fair and accountable. Election infrastructure must result in votes being counted as cast. If the federal government and states abide by these principles, American voters will be protected and the very structure of our civic society preserved.
To learn more, read the Policy Focus: Securing American Elections.