Election Integrity Group Says Tied Election Results Show Need for Ballot Security

A person walks past the sign for a polling place for the state's primary election in Mountain Brook, Ala., on March 5, 2024. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

In 2023, there were 26 elections across the United States that resulted in a tie, with another seven being decided by one vote. Pennsylvania led the nation with seven tied elections.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) announced the 2023 data on March 25. PILF researchers reported that there have been 602 ties and 146 elections decided by a single vote since the foundation began collecting nationwide information in 2002.

“These elections illustrate that one illegal vote or error can affect the outcome of an election,” the organization stated.

As part of its evidence, PILF highlighted a one-vote margin mayoral race in Wisconsin for which a court ordered a new election after discovering that at least two mail-in ballots were illegal. One ballot came from a person who had not asked for it, and another mail-in ballot came from a person residing in Illinois who was not registered to vote in Wisconsin.

In making his decision, the judge also cited three other mail-in ballot return envelopes that were accepted for counting without the required witness signatures. The violating envelopes were not noticed by those conducting the recount, according to the study report.

Other Elections Voided Over Illegal Votes

In another one-vote margin contest highlighted by PILF, the Louisiana Supreme Court voided the result of an election for sheriff and ordered a new election after it found that “beyond a doubt” 11 illegal votes were cast and counted. The court declared that it was “legally impossible” to know what the true vote should have been.

According to PILF, the court found that, of the 11 illegal votes, two individuals had voted twice, four felons had voted, and five absentee ballots should not have been accepted.

“One vote makes a difference. Ties happen. Illegal votes, mistakes, and errors shouldn’t determine the winner of an election,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

The nationwide statistics presented by PILF are only a portion of the occurrences of ties and elections decided by razor-thin margins in 21st century America.

As a disclaimer, the PILF report stated that “this database is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list. There are many more tied and close elections out there.”

In conducting its decades-long study, PILF said it used its own team of experts and noted that it also relies on input from people in election jurisdictions who inform the organization of tied or very close elections in their localities. The tips are then verified and added to the report.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting states and other entities in fighting “against lawlessness in American elections” and striving to preserve the U.S. Constitution, according to its mission statement.

PILF has brought and won election integrity lawsuits in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and several other states.