India Proves There is No Barrier to Quick, Trustworthy Election Results

If a country with over a billion people can deliver smooth elections, no U.S. state has any excuse to fall short.

President Donald Trump recently praised India’s democracy as a model American election officials should follow. “India's last Election had 646,000,000 Voters! Less than 1% voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document," he wrote on Truth Social. “We need to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, now!”

He’s right. Despite its size and poverty, the world’s largest country proves that there is no excuse to run sloppy elections.

Republicans have tried to nationally implement many of the practices that make India’s elections run smoothly, warning that failing to do so creates opportunities for human error and outright fraud. Yet Democrats fight efforts to establish transparency around voter registration lists at every opportunity.

A Large Population Is No Barrier to Quick Results

Comprised of thousands of ethnic and tribal groups, India has more than four times as many people as the U.S. It is eight times poorer than per capita when adjusted for purchasing power. And its infrastructure is greatly inferior to America’s. Despite these challenges, it runs one of the smoothest election systems in the world. Two reasons for this are its insistence on maintaining clean voter rolls and making precincts small enough to release all the results within hours.

The University of Melbourne’s Pursuit quoted an Election Commission of India instruction as saying: “The Commission firmly believes that pure and updated electoral rolls are the foundation of free, fair and credible election and intensive and sustained focus is laid on improving their quality, health and fidelity.”

The country also produces final results after less than six hours of ballot counting. This differs sharply from some U.S. states like California and Arizona that often take weeks to determine winners.

Poverty, Geography, and Underdevelopment Are Not Excuses 

India proves that sound electoral laws can overcome the challenges that a large, diverse country poses. In its most recent general election, it enrolled nearly 980 million voters, and more than 646 million of them cast ballots.

It’s worth noting that India doesn’t tolerate the kinds of irresponsible voting rules like all-mail voting that make it easy for unscrupulous actors to prey on poor voters. For instance, less than one percent of Indians vote by mail, and all voters must present their Electoral Photo Identity Card issued by the Election Commission or another accepted form of photo ID. Similarly to Florida, India does not accept mail-in votes that arrive after the day officials count them.

It achieves these quick results despite the country’s challenging terrain. The Election Commission operates under a rule that no citizens may live more than two kilometers from a polling station. This standard is so strict that officials have even brought hauled voting machines by helicopter, boat, mule, and elephant into Himalayan villages, tiger reserves, and islands. At one point, they set up a station for a single monk who lived alone in a forest.

Empowering Democracy: A solitary polling station is set up in Gir Forest, Gujarat, to ensure that the monk residing in the wilderness can easily vote without traveling long distance. #ChunavKaParv #DeshKaGarv #Elections2024 https://t.co/vdzzxr7x2m

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) July 9, 2024

The country also uses “phased” voting, a form of assigned early voting. This prevents it from stretching its security forces too thin on one day and makes it easier to quickly count and release the results.

Objections to adopting many of safeguards nationwide in the U.S. aren’t limited to Democrats. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) objects to the SAVE America Act because she thinks the citizenship verification process and limited mail-in voting the bill imposes would disenfranchise many in her state.

Alaska's infrastructure challenges are real. They are also smaller than what India's election workers overcome every cycle. India doesn't waive photo ID requirements because a village is remote. It delivers the polling station and the ID requirement together, using mobile teams and fly-in clinics. Alaska doesn't have as many elephants, but it does have far more technological resources than remote Indian states and belongs to a far richer country.

America Lags Poorer Countries by Choice

Many Americans rightly associate poverty and underdevelopment with electoral corruption. But the U.S. lags many less developed countries at running elections because Democrats insist on poor election security and massive mail-in voting. Ironically, tax-funded programs that Democrats support have helped develop good electoral practices in many otherwise backward and developing countries. These practices include maintaining clean voter rolls, biometric voter ID, and limited mail-in voting—practices many Democratic-led states resist.

India has mastered the techniques necessary to conduct elections with hundreds of millions of voters. Updated voter rolls, a photo ID requirement, sensible early voting to accommodate the population, and a real Election Day cutoff with quickly released results work. U.S. states that still count for days or weeks have chosen a process fraught with moral hazard. Trump’s praise of the way India handles its elections is accurate—as is his admonition to pass the SAVE America Act, which would nationalize some of the standards that work well in other large countries with even fewer resources to implement them.

Restoration of America is fighting to pass the SAVE America Act. Contact your Senator today and demand action that will safeguard our elections.

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