Test ballots are loaded into ballots for in-person voting at the Maricopa County Counting and Election Center storage warehouse in Phoenix on June 3.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Most Americans are concerned about voter fraud in this year’s general election.
That’s according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. Much of this concern was sparked by Republicans after former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have long questioned the legitimacy of U.S. elections.
However, voter fraud remains an extremely rare event nationwide.
Alice Klapman, senior voting rights adviser at the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voter access, said, “Studies show that voter fraud is extremely rare and rarely occurs on a scale that would affect the outcome of an election.” has been consistent over the years.” .
And it’s not just research. Mr. Clapman also stated that the court: Saw The same applies to government committees and prosecutors’ offices regarding this issue.
“And the overwhelming answer for many years has been that this is extremely rare,” Klapman said. “Oftentimes, when a court considers a particular piece of evidence, it concludes that the evidence does not exist.”
Voter fraud charges do occur, but the scale is very small.
Leaders in Republican-controlled states are stepping up investigations into allegations of voter fraud in response to President Trump’s false claims. Despite increased efforts, the number of cases of possible fraud that have actually been uncovered is only a fraction of the number of votes cast in state elections.
In Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced In 2022, his office discovered 75 voters who allegedly voted in that state and another state in 2020. 6 million That year, a vote was held in Ohio.
LaRose’s office said in a statement that it had referred a total of 630 cases to prosecutors “across multiple elections,” but also noted that “voter fraud remains extremely rare” in the state.
The Associated Press also contacted local election officials in six battleground states after the 2020 election. As a result of their analysis, they discovered the following: 475 cases of possible voting fraud occurred This is a very small percentage of the more than 25 million votes cast in these six states.
Overall, Klapman said, there is a wide gap between “rhetoric and actual reality” in how many cases of voter fraud some state officials identify and prosecute.
“We often see dramatic claims of voter fraud by state officials,” she says. “But what we’ve seen over the years is that in investigations across the political spectrum, for example in Kansas, Colorado, Maine, Florida, very few cases actually result in charges.” That’s it.”
Voting fraud and voting errors
And even if a case goes to court, it is sometimes dismissed or faces a difficult path through the legal system. Klapman said this often happens in cases involving ineligible voters who “mistakenly voted in good faith believing they were eligible.”
Klapman said many of these cases involve people who at some point lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction. In Florida, 20 former inmates were arrested on suspicion of voting illegally, even though they had been given voter registration cards. Some famous cases in texas A woman named Crystal Mason said she thought she was eligible to vote in 2016.
Klapman said the conservative group. Often becomes a lump All cases where voters thought they were entitled and cases where someone intended to cheat.
“These numbers do not differentiate between allegations that may be wrong and situations where someone voted incorrectly in good faith,” she said.
Each state has a system to prevent someone from voting illegally.
Finally, states have a series of mechanisms to remove people who are ineligible to vote before they can vote.
By law, the state Required Periodically remove ineligible or deceased voters from the rolls. There are also tools to help states share voter data, like the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC.
Depending on the type of voting (in-person or by mail), there are also many safeguards to prevent someone from casting a ballot that isn’t theirs or voting altogether if they are ineligible. This includes verifying signatures, monitoring drop boxes, and training poll workers.
“States have put in place highly effective protections to prevent and detect voter fraud,” Klapman said. “And it’s important to always remember that the penalties for voter fraud are very high.”
