People line
up during Super Tuesday primary voting at a polling place located at
Fire Station #10 in Arlington on March 1. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
Images)
What do Argentina, Costa Rica and Brazil have in common?
They all outranked the United States in a comparison of election standards and procedures conducted by the Electoral Integrity Project. The United States ranked 47th worldwide, out of 139 countries.
The
survey is a measure of dozens of factors, including voter registration,
campaign financing rules, election laws, the voting process and vote
count.
Overall, one in six elections around the world were
considered electoral failures. But in general, countries in the Americas
and central and eastern Europe, as well as in Asia, were considered to
be on the winning side in terms of electoral integrity, with
Scandinavian and Western European nations topping the lists.
The
report was particularly critical of nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Even
amid those already low standards, Ethiopia stood out, according to the
report. Last May, the country's ruling party won all seats in parliament
"following harassment of opposition parties, censorship of the media
and repression of human rights."
Syria, Afghanistan and Bahrain
were described as having performed only slightly better in elections
between 2012 and 2015. Syrian elections during that time were considered
the fifth worst -- only Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, the Republic of
Congo and Burundi ranked lower.
A map showing electoral integrity worldwide. Shades of green represent high integrity, whereas red or yellow symbolizes lower integrity.
Founded
with the goal of improving government accountability, the Electoral
Integrity Project