An electoral disaster of epic proportions is headed for America in early November of 2026. And unless legislators rush to clean up these loopholes, it could completely undermine trust in America’s democracy.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffsenperger made national news issuing a warning to election officials to not bet on election outcomes, a move that certainly crush confidence in the free and fair elections of our republic.
Shortly afterwards, Rebecca Buis of the conservative Daily Signal interviewed me, probably because of my Cobb County Courier article about Polls vs. Polymarkets on election betting, and I teach in Georgia.
The data is shocking. The National Conference on State Legislatures publishes data on the subject, showing only 32 states have rules against election betting by election officials as of this year. And eight of those only have partial rules on the subject.
And as the Pew Research Center reports, almost everyone that makes the practice illegal only makes it a misdemeanor. Only a few (like Illinois and Nebraska) make it a felony. A few states take away your voting rights or holding any elected office afterwards, hardly enough to deter an act designed to make money, behaving in a way that would seriously shatter our faith in our political freedoms.
My LaGrange College students (Isaiah Beabrun, Akajah Burton, Colton Esposito, Jaqualen Fields, Trey Galbraith, Sarena Henderson, Andrew Hiers, John Holder, Dezmond Jones, Jessica Jones, Ethan Longshore, Tahzim Momin, Molly Moreland, Nick Murciano, Macy Ogletree, K.J. Parham, Daniel Powers, Alea Rye, Zori Tarrance, Steven Tarvin, Palmer Walker, Jonathon Wible, and Andie Wright) took their shots in a series of class exercises, trying to figure out why some states criminalize this serious break of trust… and other states didn’t.
The SWAMP Index that focuses on state anti-corruption laws was not a significant factor in making the practice illegal in tests that we ran. Nor was the Cato Institute ranking and scores on busting public officials a significant factor in states stepping to stop this odious practice. It seemed to be random as to which states stepped up and stopped the appearance of cheating in elections cold.
The only factor that seemed to matter was a slight tendency of states that voted for President Donald Trump to ban the practice, as many states that ban sports-betting in general, according to Fox, are more likely to make this kind of behavior illegal, though that statistic wasn’t correlated with laws against election betting by election officials.
The one conclusion I could make is that we certainly need every state to ban the practice of election betting by election officials, and to pass it ASAP. And those states who make the practice illegal need more than a misdemeanor for a deterrent.
It’s got to be felony and a long prison sentence to truly ward off this disaster of an event looming over November 3.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia. His first book, “Branded”, is available on Amazon. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.