Eight states banned foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns, and six states banned ranked-choice voting in 2025
Today, Honest Elections Project released a new report outlining the major gains states made in passing critical legislation to ban foreign interference in state ballot measures and ranked-choice voting in 2025. The report also looks ahead to 2026, examining states with particular vulnerabilities to foreign funding and ranked-choice voting.
Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project, released the following statement:
“In 2025, states across the country took extraordinary steps to ban the foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns and ranked-choice voting, two of the biggest threats to election integrity and voter confidence facing the nation, and they did so in record numbers. Meanwhile, liberal election attorney Marc Elias continues to argue that foreign nationals like Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss have a right to influence American elections. Fortunately, he has lost at every turn.
“While there is still much work to be done in 2026 and beyond, this was a banner year for election integrity.”
The report lays out the eight states that moved to ban the direct and indirect funding of ballot issue campaigns by foreign nationals in 2025, an issue that has received increasing scrutiny as watchdogs have exposed the Sixteen Thirty Fund for dropping $130 million of foreign-tied money on ballot issue campaigns in states across the country. Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss has given the Sixteen Thirty Fund $280 million, making the group effectively a conduit for foreign money.
In addition, the report shows six states banned ranked-choice voting in 2025. It also shows the six states that rejected ranked-choice voting through ballot issues in the 2024 election. In total, nine states have now banned the foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns and 17 have banned ranked-choice voting.
