Recently, a handful of officials tasked with certifying election results have temporarily refused to do so, raising concerns that certification could become a platform for partisan conflict that puts voter trust at risk. ERN has conducted twin studies aimed at evaluating the certification process domestically and abroad.
The first study finds that in the U.S., political parties play a major role in deciding who certifies election results, creating the potential for political conflict in our hyper-partisan era. The second finds that almost all of our peer democracies limit the role of political parties to observing the process and bringing challenges in court.
These twin studies suggest a need to protect election certificationfrom being politicized, while providing a proper avenue for election disputes.
