Electoral fraud in the United States
Electoral fraud in the United States is considered by most experts to be extremely rare. In the last half-century, there have been occasional examples of electoral fraud affecting United States elections, mostly on the local level.[1]
Types of fraud include voter impersonation or in-person voter fraud, mail-in or absentee ballot fraud, illegal voting by non-citizens and double voting. All of these are generally considered to be very rare, with some experts stating that mail-in voting is more vulnerable to fraud than voting in-person.[2][3][4][5] Electoral fraud was significantly more prevalent in earlier United States history, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[6]
Electoral fraud has long been a significant topic in American political discourse. In recent years, false accusations of electoral fraud have often been linked to the election denial movement in the United States.[7]
Estimates of frequency
[edit]Electoral fraud is considered by most experts to be extremely rare in the United States.[8][9][10][11][12] When it does occur, it is often accidental.[13] Fraud is more likely to occur in and affect the outcome of local elections, where the potential impact of a small number of votes can be greater.[1][14][15][16]
Voter impersonation
[edit]Voter impersonation, or in-person voter fraud, is described by experts as extremely rare.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
Between 1978-2018, no elections were overturned due to voter impersonation fraud.[24] Rutgers professor Lorraine Minnite has maintained that voter impersonation is illogical from the perspective of the perpetrator due to the high risk and limited upside of casting one vote.[25] If caught, perpetrators of voter impersonation can face up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for citizens or deportation for non-citizens.[25] Proponents of voter identification laws have argued that it can be difficult to detect voter impersonation if voter ID is not required.[26][27][28] University of Virginia law professor Michael D. Gilbert agreed with Minnite in 2014 that theory and evidence suggest voter impersonation "rarely occurs", though agreed with voter ID proponents that "the failure to observe fraud does not mean that no fraud takes place". Gilbert noted that it is difficult for someone to coordinate widespread voter impersonation to steal an election, as even if they paid people to vote in-person for their preferred candidate, they could not confirm whether these people voted the way they were paid to.[29]
ABC News reported in 2012 that only four cases of voter impersonation had led to convictions in Texas over the previous decade.[25] A study released the same year by News21, an Arizona State University reporting project, identified a total of 10 cases of alleged voter impersonation in the United States between 2000 and 2012.[30][31] Another 2012 study found no evidence that voter impersonation occurred in the 2006 Georgia general elections.[32]
In a 2013 study, the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) sent investigators to vote under the names of 63 ineligible voters, who were either deceased, felons or had moved outside New York City. 61 of those investigators were allowed to illegally vote under their assumed identities. One of the two who was not allowed to vote was recognized by the mother of the felon they were impersonating, who worked at the polling place. In five instances, investigators in their 20s or 30s successfully posed as voters age 82 to 94. The DOI report stated that this result, while not large enough to be statistically significant, "indicates vulnerability in the system".[33][34]
In April 2014, Federal District Court Judge Lynn Adelman ruled in Frank v. Walker that Wisconsin's voter ID law was unconstitutional because "virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin ...".[35] In August 2014, Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt reported in the Washington Post's Wonkblog that he had identified only 31 credible cases of voter impersonation since 2000.[36][37] The most serious incident identified involved as many as 24 people trying to vote under assumed names in Brooklyn, which would still not have made a significant difference in most American elections.[38] In 2016, News21 reviewed cases of possible voter impersonation in five states where politicians had expressed concerns about it. They found no cases of voter impersonation out of 38 total cases.[39]
Mail-in ballot fraud
[edit]Mail-in ballot fraud is considered quite rare, though some experts consider it more likely to occur than in-person voter fraud.[2][3][40][41] Between 1978–2018, at least fourteen elections were invalidated or overturned by courts due to absentee ballot fraud.[24]
Postal ballots have been the source of "most significant vote-counting disputes in recent decades", according to Edward Foley, director of the Election Law program at Ohio State University.[4] The New York Times wrote in 2012 that according to election administrators, fraud in voting by mail was "far less common than innocent errors" but "vastly more prevalent" than in-person voting fraud.[5] University of Chicago political scientist Anthony Fowler said in 2020 that with mail-in ballots, "it could be easier for someone to fraudulently vote on behalf of someone else or for someone to tamper with ballots" and "one might be more concerned about coercion or vote buying", but that in practice, "voter fraud is very rare, and the risk of widespread fraud is probably very minimal, even with all-mail elections".[3]
Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount, has stated "misconduct in the mail voting process is meaningfully more prevalent than misconduct in the process of voting in person", but that misconduct "still amounts to only a tiny fraction of the ballots cast by mail".[2] Lonna Atkeson, an expert in election administration, said about mail-in voting fraud, "It's really hard to find ... The fact is, we really don't know how much fraud there is ... There aren't millions of fraudulent votes, but there are some."[2] Lorraine Minnite, a professor at Rutgers University says “my sense is that it is not much more frequent than in-person voter fraud, which rarely occurs.”[2] Richard Hasen, a professor at University of California, Irvine School of Law, said in 2020 that "problems are extremely rare in the five states that rely primarily on vote-by-mail."[2]
An analysis by News21 found 491 known cases of absentee ballot fraud between 2000 and 2012.[2][42][43][44] In April 2020, a voter fraud study covering 20 years by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the level of mail-in ballot fraud "exceedingly rare" since it occurs only in "0.00006 percent" of individual votes nationally, and, in one state, "0.000004 percent — about five times less likely than getting hit by lightning in the United States."[40] A 2020 Washington Post analysis of data from three vote-by-mail states (Colorado, Oregon and Washington), with help from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), found that officials had identified just 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people out of about 14.6 million mail votes cast in 2016 and 2018.[45]
Ballot harvesting, or third parties collecting and delivering absentee ballots for voters, is legal in some states but illegal or restricted in others.[46][47]
Non-citizen voting
[edit]Illegal non-citizen voting is considered extremely rare by most experts.[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] This is due in part to the more severe penalties associated with the practice including deportation, incarceration or fines, as well as the jeopardizing of naturalization efforts.[58] Most alleged instances of noncitizen voting are due to adminstrative errors, not actual noncitizen voting.[59]
A Brennan Center for Justice study of 2016 data from 42 jurisdictions found an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting out of 23.5 million votes cast (or .0001% of all votes cast).[58][60] A 2024 search of a The Heritage Foundation database that includes a "sampling" of voter fraud cases brought by prosecutors found 85 non-citizen cases listed since 1979, in a period when 2 billion votes were cast.[61] San Francisco State University professor and non-citizen voting expert Ron Hayduk referred to non-citizen voting as a "problem that doesn't exist".[50][62] In an audit of the 2016 elections, the North Carolina State Board of Elections found that 41 out of 4.8 million total votes were by non-citizens.[63]
Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post stated there was "scattered evidence" of non-citizen voting and little to support the idea that it ever affected the outcome of a major election, but that the scarcity of evidence "does not necessarily prove that the phenomenon does not happen".[61]
The federal form to register a voter requires a unique identification number such as a Social Security or driver's license number, but it does not require proof of citizenship. New voters are only required to check a box attesting that they are a citizen.[64][65] The process of verifying the citizenship of voters varies by state, and not all states conduct verification.[64] Some prominent Republicans have speculated that non-citizen voting is a threat for this reason, though claims of widespread non-citizen voting have been unsupported by evidence.[65][66][67][68] Several Republican-led states have flagged and removed small numbers of purported non-citizens from voter rolls.[48] These processes have in turn been criticized by voting rights organizations for erroneously impacting legal voters, particularly naturalized citizens.[69][70][71]
In the 2018 Fish v. Kobach case, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson ruled that the voter ID law as unconstitutional, in part because Secretary of State Kris Kobach had not shown that non-citizen voting had occurred. She said the cases identified were consistent with administrative error.[72][73]
In 2023, Old Dominion University professor Jesse Richman examined Arizona state voter and DMV files as an expert witness for a court case. Richman said that he found 1,934 registered voters out of more than 4 million whose records indicated they were non-citizens at the time of registration or afterward. He also examined data from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study, and estimated that just under 1% of non-citizens had registered to vote. U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton wrote in her ruling on the case that "the Court found Dr. Richman’s testimony credible and affords his opinions considerable weight."[61] Richman had previously conducted a 2014 study with David Earnest which claimed that 6.4% of noncitizens had voted in 2008 and 2.2% in 2010,[74][75] however this study was criticized by other researchers, who said that the data set was too small to be useful and that some of it appeared to be misclassified.[61][76][77][78] After the 2016 elections, Richman rebuked Donald Trump's claims that millions of non-citizens had voted.[79][relevant? – discuss]
Double voting
[edit]Double voting is considered extremely rare.[80][81][82]
A number of claims that purport to have found 'potential double voters' are due in no small part to statistical probability of people sharing the same name and birthday across multiple states, referred to in statistics as the 'Birthday problem'.[83] As of 2007, the Secretary of State of Washington avoided this problem by checking the signatures to verify whether or not double-voting occurred among people with the same name and birthday. The check exonerated all but one person.[83] In 2020, researchers concluded that when two voter records share the same name and birthdate, removing the earlier registration could impede approximately 300 legitimate votes for each double vote prevented.[84]
Another common way that lists of possible double-voters get inflated is when poll workers mistakenly mark someone as having voted when they have not.[80] For example, a study of voter data from the 2012 presidential election published in the American Political Science Review estimated that at most 1 in 4,000 voters illegally cast two ballots, though accounting errors could account for all of those numbers.[84]
When double voting does actually occur, it is often inadvertent, for example if a voter thinks their absentee ballot will not be delivered in time.[85]
As of 2023, the only system that can detect double voting across states is the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which close to half of states participate in after some Republican-led states pulled out.[86] Being registered to vote in multiple states without voting in more than one is allowed.[87] The legal definition of double voting varies between states.[88]
Felony voting
[edit]In the United States, depending on the state, a person may have their voting rights suspended or withdrawn due to the conviction of a criminal offense, usually a felony. Felons who cast a ballot in those states often do not know that they were ineligible to vote.[89]
A North Carolina State Board of Elections audit of the 2016 elections found that 441 felons had voted before their right to vote had been restored.[90] 12 of the people on probation for a felony in Alamance County, North Carolina were charged with illegally voting in 2016, though five stated in separate interviews with The New York Times that they thought they were allowed to vote.[91][needs update]
Outdated voter registration
[edit]Outdated voter registration has not been linked to voter fraud despite allegations connecting the two.[92]
A 2012 report by the Pew Center on the States based on data collected in 2008, found that over 1.8 million dead people were registered to vote nationwide and over 3 million voters were registered in multiple states but no evidence of fraud that resulted.[93][92] According to PolitiFact, the study investigated "outdated voter rolls, not fraudulent votes", and made "no mention of noncitizens voting or registering to vote".[92]
Pew researchers found that military personnel were disproportionately affected by voter registration errors. Most often these involved members of the military and their families who were deployed overseas. For example, in 2008 alone, they reported almost "twice as many registration problems" as the general public.[94]: 7 In an October 2016 Associated Press fact-check, the author noted these voter registration irregularities left some people concerned that the electoral system was vulnerable to the impersonation of dead voters. However, voter rolls with dead voters are usually due to the states being slow to eliminate dead voters. By 2016, most states had addressed concerns raised by the Pew 2012 report.[95]
A 2004 analysis by The Chicago Tribune that compared voter rolls with Social Security Administration death claims found that more than 181,000 dead voters were on voter rolls across six swing states, including 64,889 in Florida and 50,051 in Michigan. The paper[which?] wrote that outdated voter registration "is considered cause for concern, especially in states where the presidential election was decided by just a few thousand votes". It noted that new laws to be adopted in 2006 were "designed to fix some of those problems".[96][further explanation needed]
History
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/The_Philadelphia_election_fraud_-_from_sketches_by_Albert_Berghaus._LCCN98511386.jpg/220px-The_Philadelphia_election_fraud_-_from_sketches_by_Albert_Berghaus._LCCN98511386.jpg)
Electoral fraud was prevalent in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when safeguards against fraud and electioneering were considerably weaker, and political machines wielded significantly more power. Political parties would produce their own ballots, and as of the mid-19th century, seven states still conducted elections by voice voting. States only began to adopt the secret ballot in the 1880s and 1890s.[6]
Voter fraud was so common that it developed its own vocabulary. "Colonizers" were groups of bought voters who moved en masse between wards. "Floaters" were voters who cast ballots for multiple parties. "Repeaters" were voters who voted multiple times, sometimes in disguise.[97]
A notable example of fraud during this time was the Democratic Tammany Hall machine in New York City, which encouraged residents to vote multiple times by shaving their beards, registered voters under fake names, and physically intimidated voters. Party bosses also granted citizenship to newly arrived immigrants. According to University of Chicago professor John Mark Hansen, cheating also regularly occurred in suburban and rural areas. Voter fraud and suppression against African-Americans was common in the Jim Crow South.[6]
In the Kansas Territory during the 1850s, pro-slavery forces seeking to ratify the Lecompton Constitution carried out voter fraud on multiple occasions by importing pro-slavery people from Missouri to cast ballots.[98][99]
In the 1876 United States presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, voter fraud was widespread, with South Carolina reporting an impossible 101 percent turnout. Violence and intimidation by Democrats against Black Republican voters also occurred. In four contested states, Republicans and Democrats filed separate tallies favoring their respective candidates. The election was ultimately decided by the Congress-appointed Electoral Commission in favor of Hayes.[100]
In the 1888 United States presidential election, there was evidence of voter fraud in some states that favored Republican Benjamin Harrison, particularly in his home state of Indiana.[101] Public backlash contributed to the implementation of secret ballots nationwide.[97] Two races in the 1888 United States House of Representatives elections were also annulled due to fraud. Democrat Barnes Compton was initially elected in Maryland, but his Republican opponent Sydney E. Mudd contested the election the following year alleging fraud, and the investigating committee ruled in favor of Mudd.[102] Arkansas Republican John M. Clayton lost to Democrat Clifton R. Breckinridge after masked men stole a ballot box with a large majority of Clayton votes. Clayton was assassinated the following year while challenging the election, but was posthumously declared the winner.[103]
Cooping, a form of electoral fraud where people were kidnapped, drugged and forced to repeatedly vote, is thought to have contributed to the October 1849 death of Edgar Allan Poe.[104][105]
Notable cases (1948–present)
[edit]Electoral fraud has led to several convictions in modern United States history, and has caused some election results to be affected or annulled. This list does not include elections such as the 1960 United States presidential election in Illinois[106] or the 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota[107][108] where allegations of fraud received widespread attention, but were not definitively proven.
- In the 1948 United States Senate election in Texas, according to a 1990 book by historian Robert A. Caro, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson won the election due to electoral fraud, which included county officials casting ballots for absent voters and changing vote tally numbers.[1][109]
- Between 1968 and 1984, eight primary elections in Brooklyn, New York were marked by repeated fraud according to the findings of a grand jury. The fraud included multiple voting by teams of political workers with fake voter identification cards.[110] Richard Hasen has argued that this fraud, because it involved election officials colluding with one another, could not have been prevented by a voter ID law.[111]
- In the 1982 Illinois elections, there were 62 indictments and 58 convictions for election fraud, many involving precinct captains and election officials. A grand jury concluded that 100,000 fraudulent votes had been cast in Chicago. Authorities found fraud involving vote buying and ballots cast by others in the names of registered voters.[112] The case was prosecuted in November 1982 by U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb.[113][114]
- In the 1987 Chicago mayoral election, two reviews conducted by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and an election watchdog group headed by former U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb found that tens of thousands of ballots were fraudulently cast in the Democratic primary.[115][116][117]
- In the 1993 Hialeah, Florida mayoral election, a judge ruled that so many ballots had been cast from a retirement home housing schizophrenics and drug addicts that the election had to be re-run.[118]
- In the 1994 Pennsylvania State Senate elections, a federal judge invalidated a race in Philadelphia after finding that the Democratic candidate, William G. Stinson, had stolen the election through absentee ballot fraud. The fraud involved hundreds of residents being encouraged to vote absentee without a legal justification.[119]
- In the 1996 United States House of Representatives elections in California, an investigation by the House Oversight Committee found that 624 non-citizens had voted in the 46th district race between Bob Dornan and Loretta Sanchez. The race was ultimately decided by 979 votes, so it did not affect the result.[120]
- In the 1997 Miami, Florida mayoral election, the result was invalidated by a judge who cited "a pattern of fraudulent, intentional and criminal conduct" in the casting of absentee ballots.[121]
- In the 2003 East Chicago, Indiana mayoral election, the Indiana Supreme Court invalidated the Democratic primary citing "a widespread and pervasive pattern" of absentee ballot fraud.[122] Forty-six people, mainly city workers, were found guilty in a wide-ranging conspiracy to purchase votes through the use of absentee ballots.[123]
- In the 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida, Jeffrey Garcia, chief of staff to 26th district incumbent Joe Garcia, was charged with orchestrating an attempt to illegally request nearly 2,000 absentee ballots. Garcia pled guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.[118]
- In the 2012 Massachusetts House of Representatives election, Republican candidate Enrico "Jack" Villamaino pled guilty to absentee ballot fraud, after prosecutors found he and his wife had changed more than 280 voters' registrations to make them eligible to vote in the Republican primary, and forged the voters' names on absentee ballot requests.[124]
- In the 2012 Ohio elections, Cincinnati poll worker Melowese Richardson was convicted of voter fraud after using her position to illegally vote twice. She also voted three times between 2008 and 2012 for her sister who was in a coma. Richardson was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013, but was released and put on probation the following year.[125][126]
- In the 2014 and 2018 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania elections, former Democratic congressman Michael "Ozzie" Myers was found to have bribed election workers to stuff ballot boxes in local races. Myers pled guilty in 2022 and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.[127]
- In the 2018 Michigan elections, Southfield poll worker Sherikia Hawkins pled no contest to misconduct after she was accused of covering up a failure to count 193 absentee ballots. Hawkins resigned in 2022 and was fined $10,000.[128][129]
- In the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in North Carolina, Mark Harris won the 9th district Republican primary by 900 votes, but allegations of absentee ballot tampering related to a Harris campaign consultant stopped the North Carolina State Board of Elections from certifying the result. A new election was held in 2019.[130]
- In the 2020 Iowa elections, Sioux City resident Kim Phuong Taylor illegally submitted or caused others to submit dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information. Taylor did this to help her husband, Jeremy Taylor, who was running for Congress and Woodbury County supervisor. She was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024.[131][132]
- In the 2023 Bridgeport, Connecticut mayoral election, a judge ordered the Democratic primary to be re-run after ruling that there was enough evidence of ballot stuffing to throw the results into doubt. According to the New York Times, illegal ballot manipulation is not uncommon in Bridgeport elections, and has included apartment residents being pressured to apply for absentee ballots they were not entitled to.[133]
Public perception
[edit]A 2016 nationwide poll published in the Washington Post found that 84% of Republicans, 75% of independents and 52% of Democrats believed that a "meaningful amount" of fraud occurred in United States elections.[134] A 2022 poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley found that 39% of California voters thought illegal voting was a "major threat" to state elections, and 21% thought it was a "minor threat".[135] A series of Monmouth polls conducted between 2020 and 2023 found that 29%–32% of Americans believed the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.[136]
A June 2021 poll by the Texas Tribune and University of Texas found that 19% of Texas voters think that ineligible people frequently cast ballots.[137] A July 2021 poll published by NPR found that more Americans were concerned about ensuring everyone who wants to vote can cast a ballot (56%) versus ensuring that nobody who is ineligible votes (41%).[138] 90% of Democrats said access was more important versus 75% of Republicans who said stopping ineligible voting was more important.[138]
Perception gap
[edit]Flawed research is one factor that can widen a gap in perception that significant voter fraud has occurred between supporters of the candidate that lost an election and the supporters of a candidate that won.[139] False claims of fraud have lowered overall levels of trust in elections.[140]
Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy suggests that political elites, right-wing media organizations and well-funded nonprofits promote the narrative of electoral fraud out of political or financial self-interest that taps into political paranoia that he traces to McCarthyism, the great replacement and the deep state.[141] Jon Schwarz lists examples of false voter fraud claims from Republicans going back decades.[142]
The New York Times cites the loosening of content moderation on social media by early 2024 as a driver in beliefs about conspiracy theories including those around election fraud, including YouTube which said it would stop removing false voter fraud claims before the election. Autocracies like Russia and China have been using disinformation aided by artificial intelligence to try to elect more authoritarian leaders in democracies around the world.[143]
A 2016 study published in State Politics & Policy Quarterly found that Republicans living in states with voter identification laws were on average more confident in their state's elections than Republicans who did not. However Democrats in states with voter identification laws were less confident in their elections than other Democrats. The study found that this dynamic "was polarized and conditioned by party identification".[144]
Consequences
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/UC_Berkeley_Poll.png/300px-UC_Berkeley_Poll.png)
Political violence and threats
[edit]The combination of false claims about electoral fraud and violent, warlike rhetoric has been noted to raise the likelihood of election workers receiving threats and political violence such as the January 6 attacks.[145][51][146] Some election experts worry that Trump's voters would resort to violence again in 2024 if he lost the election.[147][51]
A 2024 Brennan Center survey found 4 in 10 election workers had experienced threats, harassment or abuse.[148] In some cases, such as Detroit in 2024, poll workers were given additional protections as a preventative measure, including the electronic screening of poll watchers and a greater distance from them.[149] In 2020, poll watchers in Detroit were banging on the glass while they were counting votes and screaming 'stop the steal.'[149]
Voter intimidation
[edit]While voter intimidation has been relatively rare, it has increased since 2020 with the false claims of fraud and concerted efforts to recruit poll watchers.[150] CNBC cited voter intimidation as a bigger concern for analysts than voter fraud ahead of the 2020 elections after Trump encouraged his supporters to go to the polls and "watch very carefully".[10] According to The Washington Post, voting rights advocates worry that the rhetoric about noncitizen voting could have a 'chilling effect' on Latino citizens and naturalized immigrants exercising their right to vote.[151] In Arizona in 2022, there were instances of people surveilling drop boxes and taking photos of people's license plates.[150]
Overturning election results
[edit]Critics also say that some who are spreading of fraud hope to lay the groundwork for overturning election results.[148][152][153] 2020 saw a number of failed attemps to overturn the 2020 election results whose justification was unfounded claims of voter fraud, including the January 6th Capitol attack.[147][154] 2024 presidential election has seen a proliferation of conspiracy theories that election experts and some Republicans veterans warn could be seeds planted in case Trump loses and tries to overturn another election.[155]
According to a New York Times newsletter, Georgia seems the most likely state to overturn election results on unfounded claims of fraud in 2024 due to recent changes in who oversees elections.[156]
Voter turnout
[edit]Democrats and voting rights advocates argue that the Republican rhetoric around illegal voting is not a sincere effort to address voter fraud, but is designed to increase turnout of the Republican base.[151]
Donald Trump voter fraud claims
[edit]2016 presidential election
[edit]President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that between 3 and 5 million people cost him the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by voting illegally.[157] He claimed that he narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016 in New Hampshire (and that Senator Kelly Ayotte also lost her bid for re-election in New Hampshire) because thousands of people were illegally bused there from Massachusetts.[158] There is no evidence to support Trump's claims, which the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office determined were unfounded.[159][160]
CNN reported in January of 2017 that Trump had based his fraud voter claims on information from Gregg Phillips.[161][162] While members of Trump's cabinet and family were registered to vote in multiple states, this was considered to be oversight, not fraud.[163] In response to Trump's allegations, on February 10, Ellen L. Weintraub, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Commissioner, requested that Trump provide evidence of the "thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law".[164] In a CNN interview on February 12, Stephen Miller was unable at that time to support claims of voter fraud as evidence.[165][158] There is no evidence to support Trump's assertion that there was substantial voter fraud in the 2016 election.
Voter fraud commission (2017)
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/President_Trump_is_joined_by_Vice_President_Pence_for_an_Executive_Order_signing_%2833803971533%29_%282%29.jpg/220px-President_Trump_is_joined_by_Vice_President_Pence_for_an_Executive_Order_signing_%2833803971533%29_%282%29.jpg)
On May 11, 2017, Trump signed an executive order to establish a voter fraud commission to conduct an investigation into voter fraud.[166] He had announced his intention to create the commission on January 25.[157] The commission's chairman was Vice President Mike Pence with Kris Kobach as vice chairman.[166] Kobach, who is the Secretary of State of Kansas, called for stricter voter ID laws in the United States.[167][168] Kobach claims there is a voter fraud crisis in the United States.[169][170][171][172][173] Trump's creation of the commission was criticized by voting rights advocates, scholars and experts, and newspaper editorial boards as a pretext for, and prelude to, voter suppression.[174][175][176][177][178]
In January 2018, Trump abruptly disbanded the commission,[179] which met only twice.[180] The commission found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States.[179][180]
2020 presidential election
[edit]During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump indicated in Twitter posts, interviews and speeches that he might refuse to recognize the outcome of the election if he were defeated; Trump falsely suggested that the election would be rigged against him.[181][182][183] Trump repeatedly claimed that "the only way" he could lose would be if the election was "rigged" and repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power after the election.[184][185] Trump also attacked mail-in voting throughout the campaign, falsely claiming that the practice contained high rates of fraud.[186][187][188] In September 2020, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, a Trump appointee, testified under oath that the FBI has "not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise."[189]
In the lead-up to the election, citing fraud concerns, Republicans filed lawsuits in several states seeking to limit the use of mail-in voting,[190] and prepared to challenge individual mail-in ballots.[191] Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg criticized his party for this in a November 1, 2020 Washington Post op-ed, writing that over the last four decades, "Republicans found only isolated instances of fraud", and that "Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party. People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn’t exist".[12]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/20240524_Trump_groundwork_for_election_denial.svg/220px-20240524_Trump_groundwork_for_election_denial.svg.png)
After most of the major news organizations declared Biden the President-elect on November 7,[193][194][195][196] Trump refused to accept his loss, declaring "this election is far from over" and alleging election fraud without providing evidence.[197] Multiple lawsuits alleging electoral fraud were filed by the Trump campaign, all of which were dismissed as having no merit.[198] Republican officials questioned the legitimacy of the election and aired conspiracy theories regarding various types of alleged fraud.[199][200] In early 2021, motivated by the claims of widespread voter fraud and the resulting legitimacy crisis among the Republican base, GOP lawmakers in a number of states initiated a push to make voting laws more restrictive.[201]
In December of 2021, the Associated Press released a detailed fact-check which found fewer than 475 instances of voter fraud out of an estimated 25 million votes cast in the six battleground states.[202] They involved both Democrats and Republicans and were almost always caught before the votes were counted.[203][204][205][206] While some seemed intentional, others involved involved clerical error or voter confusion.[203]
2024 presidential election
[edit]In the 2024 Republican New Hampshire primary, Trump repeated false claims that from other states voted in the primary.[146]
According to the New York Times, Trump escalated use of "rigged election" and "election interference" statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections. The statements were described as part of a "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy.[192]
An August 2024 poll found that 17% of Americans are not prepared to accept the outcome of the 2024 election and that two-thirds of Americans do not believe Trump is prepared to accept the outcome.[207] 34% of survey respondents lack confidence that votes will be tallied correctly.[207]
In 2024, the Republican National Committee launched a swing state initiative to mobilize thousands of poll watchers, poll workers and attorneys to act as "election integrity" watchdogs. The party will deploy monitors to observe the election process, create hotlines for poll watchers to report perceived problems and escalate issues through legal action.[208]
Critics have argued that right-wing efforts to recruit poll watchers will undermine trust in elections and are targeted on polling places where more democrats cast their ballots.[149] The 2024 election also saw an increase in volunteers recruited by nonpartisan voter advocacy groups to assist poll workers and voters.[149]
Prevention
[edit]Voter ID laws
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Map_of_US_Voter_ID_Laws_by_State.svg/250px-Map_of_US_Voter_ID_Laws_by_State.svg.png)
In the United States, voter ID laws (laws requiring identification to vote) have been enacted in 36 states as of 2024 with the stated aim of preventing voter impersonation.[209] They have mostly been introduced by Republican legislators since 2011.[210][25][29] Specific forms of ID required vary between states, with some requiring photo identification.[211] Some laws have been struck down in court as an undue burden.[209]
Voter ID requirements are generally popular among Americans, though they are also a divisive issue.[212][213] Critics of voter ID laws have argued that they depress turnout by lawful voters under the pretense of addressing voter fraud, which is quite rare.[209][29] Americans who have lower incomes, are younger or transgender are less likely to have an updated ID.[209][214]
Proof of citizenship
[edit]In July 2024, the United States House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would mandate that Americans show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. It is considered unlikely to become law due to opposition from the Democratic Party and a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed it illegal to require additional citizenship documentation in order to register to vote.[215][216] In August 2024, the Supreme Court allowed Arizona to enforce a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, pending appeal.[217]
Signature verification
[edit]Signature verification is carried out by a majority of states in order to prevent forged paper ballots. According to the Election Administration and Voting Survey, 27.5% of rejected absentee ballots in 2016[218] and 15.8% of rejected mail-in ballots in 2018[219] were due to signature mismatches. Tossing ballots due to signature mismatches can depend on the method of signature verification used.[220] As of 2024, 31 states conduct signature verification on returned absentee or mail-in ballots. Nine states do not conduct signature verification, but require the signature of either a witness, two witnesses, or a notary. Ten states and Washington, D.C. neither conduct signature verification nor require a witness signature.[221]
Mississippi is the only state to both conduct signature verification and require a witness signature (in this case, a notary).[221] Four states (Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota and Ohio) additionally require either a copy of the voter’s ID or a voter identification number.[221]
In the 2020 Georgia runoffs, there was a spike in rejected signatures compared with the general election just weeks before that was attributed to an explosion of misinformation around unfounded claims of voter fraud.[152]
Election audits
[edit]As of 2024, 48 states conduct some type of post-election audit, which check if the equipment and procedures used to count votes worked properly, and detect discrepancies using a hand count of paper records. The two exceptions are Alabama and New Hampshire, both of which nonetheless piloted different audit types in 2022. The type and scope of audit significantly varies between states.[222]
Voter roll management
[edit]Voter roll purges
[edit]Voter caging is the process of challenging the voter registration status of someone who is registered to vote. It often involves sending that person a postcard to the address on file and removing the voter if they do not respond within a certain time period.[223] The practice can be controversial with some civil rights groups successfully suing some states that target voters of a particular political party or race in such a way as to make it meaningfully impact election outcomes and voter's rights.[224]
Interstate databases
[edit]The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program was a database established in 2005 and run by Kansas that compared voting records across multiple states to prevent double voting. At least 28 states opted into the program, but academics and several states found that it returned high rates of false positives that would disenfranchise legal voters. Some states left as a result.[225] In 2017, the program was put on hold after the Department of Homeland Security discovered security vulnerabilities. In 2019, the program was indefinitely suspended as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.[226]
In 2012, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) was established with a goal of improving the accuracy of voter rolls through comparisons between states.[227] At its peak, 33 states and the District of Columbia were members.[228] Beginning in 2022, nine Republican-led states left ERIC. States cited complaints about governance issues, including that ERIC mailed newly eligible voters who had not yet registered ahead of federal elections, and that it had become subject to alleged partisan influence.[229][230] ERIC was the subject of repeated false claims from allies of Donald Trump that it was a voter registration vehicle for Democrats. Several states that left ERIC subsequently created their own partnerships.[227][229][230]
Prosecution
[edit]According to the New York Times, prosecutions of voter fraud often net people who did not realize they were breaking the law. Most violations "draw wrist-slaps" or fall apart because there was no intent to commit fraud, while some high-profile prosecutions have produced multiple-year jail terms. Prosecutions are exceedingly rare – as of 2022, an average of one and a half people per state per year were charged with voter fraud.[89]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Kessler, Glenn (November 1, 2022). "The truth about election fraud: It's rare". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
In the last half-century, there are only scattered examples of where election fraud appeared to have made a difference in the outcome. They often take place in races that attract relatively few voters and thus the impact of fraud could be greater.
- ^ a b c d e f g Farley, Robert (April 10, 2020). "Trump's Latest Voter Fraud Misinformation". FactCheck.org. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ a b c Morgan, Billy (July 6, 2020). "Why fears about voting by mail are unfounded". University of Chicago News. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
- ^ a b Foley, Edward B. "Why Vote-by-Mail Could be a Legal Nightmare in November". Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ a b Liptak, Adam (October 7, 2012). "As More Vote by Mail, Faulty Ballots Could Impact Elections". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 23, 2024. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ a b c Blakemore, Erin (November 11, 2020). "Voter fraud used to be rampant. Now it's an anomaly". National Geographic. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Edlin, Ruby; Norden, Lawrence; Garber, Andrew; Hasan, Shanze; Clapman, Alice; Panditharatne, Mekela (May 3, 2023). "The Election Deniers' Playbook for 2024". Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ "Re-examining how and why voter fraud is exceedingly rare in the U.S. ahead of the 2022 midterms". Reuters. June 2, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
This article aims to provide information and context on how voter fraud in the U.S. is not a 'widespread' issue, as some online commentators claim, but made exceedingly rare by existing safeguards.
- ^ "G.O.P. Concocts Fake Threat: Voter Fraud by Undocumented Immigrants". NYTimes. April 28, 2022.
Voter fraud is exceptionally rare, and allegations that widespread numbers of undocumented immigrants are voting have been repeatedly discredited.
- ^ a b Baldwin, Shawn (October 28, 2020). "Half of registered voters expect to have some difficulty voting, according to the Pew Research Center". CNBC. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
While most experts agree voter fraud on a national scale is unlikely, a bigger concern for the 2020 elections, according to analysts, is voter intimidation.
- ^ Walsh, Joe (September 30, 2020). "Trump Bizarrely Claimed West Virginia Mailmen Are 'Selling' Ballots. They're Not". Forbes. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
Most experts say there is almost no evidence of systemic voter fraud in the United States, even in states where most people vote by mail.
- ^ a b Ginsberg, Benjamin L. "Opinion | My party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump". The Washington Post.
Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party. People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn't exist
- ^ "Election Fraud Is Rare. Except, Maybe, in Bridgeport, Conn". New York Times. January 21, 2024.
...though experts say election fraud is rare in the United States and often accidental when it occurs.
- ^ Fessler, Pam (May 15, 2020). "'It's Partly On Me': GOP Official Says Fraud Warnings Hamper Vote-By-Mail Push". NPR. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
As many experts have said for years, Adams said instances of voter fraud are rare and more likely to be found in small, local races than in a statewide or national election.
- ^ "The Nonexistent Link Between Mailed Ballots and Voter Fraud". Governing. April 25, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
What the researchers did find, however, was that illegal voting was most prevalent in local races, where a small number of votes could alter the outcome. In other words, in the few instances where illegal voting happened, it was not in a presidential election — the contest that has been the focus of the attacks on mail voting by Trump's base.
- ^ Fahrenthold, David A. (October 2, 2012). "Selling votes is common type of election fraud". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
In the past three years, six legal cases have laid out, step by step, ways that elections can be stolen. All involved local races, for positions such as magistrate, county clerk, mayor and state representative.
- ^ Tomsic, Michael (September 7, 2016). "Despite Court Ruling, Voting Rights Fight Continues In North Carolina". NPR. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
Nationwide, voter fraud is also very rare. A law professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles tracks claims of voter fraud. Of the more than 1 billion votes studied, he found only 31 credible cases of fraud. Despite the minimal risk, several other states have adopted stricter voting laws in recent years. A federal appeals court also struck down a voter ID requirement in Texas last month.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (March 23, 2015). "Wisconsin Decides Not to Enforce Voter ID Law". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
The state said the law was needed to combat voter fraud. But cases of impersonation at the polls are very rare.
- ^ Selby, W. Gardner (March 17, 2016). ""The fact is voter fraud is rampant.": Light a match to Greg Abbott's ridiculous claim about 'rampant voter fraud'". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
Best we can tell, in-person voter fraud--the kind targeted by the ID law--remains extremely rare, which makes this claim incorrect and ridiculous.
- ^ Farley, Robert (October 19, 2016). "Trump's Bogus Voter Fraud Claims". FactCheck.org. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
But is there? Many election experts say the kind of voter fraud Trump is talking about — voter impersonation — is extremely rare, and not enough to tip even a close presidential election. And there is plenty of research to back that up.
- ^ Ali Vitali; Peter Alexander; Kelly O'Donnell (May 11, 2017). "Trump establishes vote fraud commission". CNBC. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
The evidence that does exist, however, shows that voter fraud is extremely rare and that three million undocumented immigrants didn't vote in the 2016 election.
- ^ Jill Colvin (October 18, 2016). "Trump wrongly insists voter fraud is 'very, very common'; Donald Trump is insisting voter fraud does, indeed, pose a significant threat to the integrity of the U.S. electoral system". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
Most experts say voter fraud is extremely rare in the U.S., with one study by a Loyola Law School professor finding just 31 known cases of impersonation fraud out of 1 billion votes cast in U.S. elections between 2000 and 2014.
- ^ "Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth" (PDF). Brennan Center. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
But putting rhetoric aside to look at the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to "rig" an election.
- ^ a b Spencer, Douglas M. (2023). "Response: Electoral Maintenance" (PDF). Boston University Law Review. 103 (7): 2209. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 20, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
Perhaps more damning, at least fourteen elections have been invalidated or overturned by a court between 1978-2018 due to absentee ballot fraud while not a single election has been overturned due to voter impersonation fraud.
- ^ a b c d Bingham, Amy (September 12, 2012). "Voter Fraud: Non-Existent Problem or Election-Threatening Epidemic?". ABC News. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ Ahlquist, John S.; Mayer, Kenneth R.; Jackman, Simon (December 1, 2014). "Alien Abduction and Voter Impersonation in the 2012 U.S. General Election: Evidence from a Survey List Experiment". Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy. 13 (4): 460–475. doi:10.1089/elj.2013.0231.
Existing studies, relying mainly on documented criminal prosecutions and investigations of apparent irregularities, turn up very little evidence of fraud. Critics argue that this is unsurprising because casting fraudulent votes is easy and largely undetectable without strict photo ID requirements.
- ^ Chatelain, Ryan (July 15, 2021). "Debate over photo voter ID laws is enduring – and complex". Spectrum News NY1. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Rousu, Matthew (September 3, 2014). "Voter ID Would Protect Voter's Rights, Not Inhibit Them". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ a b c Gilbert, Michael D. (September 5, 2014). "The Problem of Voter Fraud". Columbia Law Review. 115 (3): 739–75.Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2014-56; Virginia Law and Economics Research Paper No. 2014-15.
- ^ "Report: Voter impersonation a rarity". UPI. August 12, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ Davis, Janel (September 19, 2012). "In-person voter fraud 'a very rare phenomenon'". Politifact. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ Hood, M. V.; Gillespie, William (March 2012). "They Just Do Not Vote Like They Used To: A Methodology to Empirically Assess Election Fraud". Social Science Quarterly. 93 (1): 76–94. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2011.00837.x.
- ^ Hearn, Rose Gill (December 2013). "New York City Department of Investigation Report on the New York City Board of Elections' Employment Practices, Operations, and Election Administration" (PDF). p. iii. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 18, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
- ^ Gould, Jessica (December 30, 2013). "Dead Man Voting: Report Finds Fraud Potential at NYC Board of Election". WNYC. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
- ^ Reilly, Ryan (April 29, 2014). "In-Person Voter Fraud Is Virtually Nonexistent, Federal Judge Rules". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
- ^ Bump, Philip (October 13, 2014). "The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud". The Washington Post The Fix blog. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^ Levitt, Justin (August 6, 2014). "A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ Bump, Philip (October 13, 2014). "The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
- ^ Edge, Sami (August 21, 2016). "A review of key states with Voter ID laws found no voter impersonation fraud". Center for Public Integrity.
- ^ a b Charles Stewart III; Amber McReynolds (April 28, 2020). "Let's put the vote-by-mail 'fraud' myth to rest". The Hill. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
- ^ Bialik, Carl (August 31, 2012). "Voter Fraud: Hard to Identify". WSJ. Archived from the original on October 27, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
One rare point of agreement among most experts: Absentee-ballot fraud is a far bigger problem than voter-impersonation fraud—about 50 times more common, says News21—and voter-ID laws won't stop it.
- ^ Carson, Corbin (August 12, 2012). "Who Can Vote? – A News21 2012 National Project". News21. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ Kahn, Natasha and Corbin Carson. "Investigation: election day fraud "virtually nonexistent"". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ^ Young, Ashley (September 23, 2016). "A Complete Guide To Early And Absentee Voting". NPR. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ^ Viebeck, Elise (June 8, 2020). "Minuscule number of potentially fraudulent ballots in states with universal mail voting undercuts Trump claims about election risks". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 27, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Huey-Burns, Caitlyn; Bidar, Musadiq (September 1, 2020). "What is ballot harvesting, where is it allowed and should you hand your ballot to a stranger?". CBS News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Christie, Bob (June 1, 2022). "Records show coordinated Arizona ballot collection scheme". AP News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ a b Lieb, David A. (September 1, 2024). "Illegal voting by noncitizens is rare, yet Republicans are making it a major issue this election". AP News. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
Voting by noncitizens is rare.
- ^ Sherman, Amy. "Do states verify citizenship of voters in federal elections?". PolitiFact. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
Cases of noncitizens voting are statistically rare. Some noncitizens accidentally end up on voter rolls when applying for drivers' licenses.
- ^ a b Parks, Miles (April 12, 2024). "Republicans aim to stop noncitizen voting in federal elections. It's already illegal". NPR. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
Numerous studies have also confirmed that it almost never happens, but as more conservative voters say immigration is a key issue for them, it's become clearer that election misinformation in 2024 will center on the topic as well.
- ^ a b c Rogers, Kaleigh (May 29, 2024). "Republicans are ramping up election fraud claims ahead of November". ABC News. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
...election denialism continues to be the Republican tack as long as Trump remains the captain, and it could once again have very serious repercussions if he isn't victorious in November.
- ^ "Fact checking Trump and Johnson's election integrity announcement". CNN. April 12, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
Despite Johnson's focus on this topic, it is extremely rare, according to decades of voting data and nonpartisan experts. It's so uncommon that voting experts don't see it as a problem plaguing US elections.
- ^ "Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, yet Republicans are making it a major election concern". PBS News. September 2, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ "House passes bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote, fanning a GOP election-year talking point". AP News. July 10, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via PBS News.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, a proposal Republicans have prioritized as an election-year talking point even as research shows noncitizens illegally registering and casting ballots in federal elections is exceptionally rare.
- ^ Morse, Clara Ence (May 9, 2024). "Noncitizen voting is extremely rare. Republicans are focusing on it anyway". Washington Post.
But experts say the Republican spotlight on the issue glosses over two crucial facts: Noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare, and it is already banned in almost all places, including the ones with ballot measures in November. That hasn't stopped Republicans from making the issue a frequent talking point. The unfounded threat brings together two issues Republicans believe will drive turnout with their base: illegal immigration and election fraud claims. Critics warn that attempts to crack down on noncitizen voting could suppress the votes of Latino voters who fear being wrongly accused of illegally casting ballots. They say they could also lead to database mismatches that push legitimate voters off the rolls.
- ^ "Here's Why Republicans Are Focusing on Voting by Noncitizens". New York Times. May 21, 2024.
House Republicans are pushing legislation to crack down on voting by noncitizens, which is allowed in some local elections but illegal — and exceedingly rare — at the federal level...
- ^ Mathur-Ashton, Aneeta (May 24, 2024). "Sorting the Fiction From the Facts About Noncitizen Voting". US News & World Report.
While the bills echo a favorite claim from Republicans regarding election fraud, several years of research and data suggest that the problem they attempt to solve up to now has been so rare as to be insignificant.
- ^ a b Waldman, Michael; Karson, Kendall; Waldman, Michael; Singh, Jasleen; Karson, Kendall (April 12, 2024). "Noncitizens Are Not Voting in Federal or State Elections — Here's Why". Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
The answer is: just about no one. Every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare.
- ^ Lieb, David A. (September 1, 2024). "Illegal voting by noncitizens is rare, yet Republicans are making it a major issue this election". AP News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Mansfield, Erin (April 12, 2024). "Speaker Mike Johnson said noncitizen voting is a 'threat.' The facts say otherwise". USA TODAY. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Kessler, Glenn (March 6, 2024). "The truth about noncitizen voting in federal elections". Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
There is scattered evidence of noncitizens voting in federal elections — sometime by mistake (such as erroneously thinking they were eligible while getting a driver's license) but also with nefarious intent ... Given the paucity of evidence of noncitizen voting, many election researchers have long said that there was little to support the idea that noncitizen voting had ever affected the outcome of a major election. But that does not necessarily prove that the phenomenon does not happen.
- ^ "Can noncitizens vote in US elections?". AP News. October 19, 2022. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Doran, Will (November 21, 2019). "Fact check: Are immigrants voting illegally in North Carolina?". Raleigh News & Observer. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Sherman, Amy (December 7, 2020). "Do states verify U.S. citizenship as a condition for voting?". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
- ^ a b Parks, Miles (April 12, 2024). "Republicans aim to stop noncitizen voting in federal elections. It's already illegal". NPR. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
- ^ Swenson, Ali (May 18, 2024). "Noncitizen voting, already illegal in federal elections, becomes a centerpiece of 2024 GOP messaging". AP News. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Ventura, Jorge (August 25, 2024). "Fact check: GOP claims on noncitizen voting lack evidence". NewsNation. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Herman, Alice (July 10, 2024). "The man who cries voter fraud: how Hans von Spakovsky has built a career peddling election security fears". the Guardian. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ "GOP crackdowns on noncitizen voting ensnare newly naturalized Americans". NBC News. August 29, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
With Republican officials around the country like Allen putting a fresh focus on preventing noncitizens from voting — which is already illegal and rare — it's naturalized Americans like Esternita Watkins who will be most affected by such voter roll purges, voting rights advocates and attorneys say.
- ^ Joffe-Block, Jude (August 30, 2024). "The GOP is making false claims about noncitizens voting. It's affecting real voters". NPR.
Most commonly, naturalized citizens are erroneously flagged as noncitizens due to election officials cross checking voter rolls with old data.
- ^ "A Virginia voter roll purge sparks renewed rhetoric over 'non-citizens' casting ballots". NBC News. August 23, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
The use of immigrant records under the SAVE system to verify voter rolls has been criticized by voting rights and immigration advocates because it's not foolproof.
- ^ Parton, Jon (July 13, 2024). "Judge Strikes Down Kansas Voter ID Law, Sanctions Kris Kobach". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
at most, 67 noncitizens registered or attempted to register in Kansas over the last 19 years
- ^ Robinson, Julie A. (June 18, 2018). "Findings of fact and conclusions of law in Fish v. Kobach, Case No. 16-2105-JAR-JPO, and Bednasek and Kobach, Case No. 15-9300-JAR-JPO (published 2018-06-18 with corrections 2018-06-19)" (PDF). US District Court for the District of Kansas. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
- ^ Richman, Jesse (October 24, 2014). "Washington Post: Could non-citizens decide the November election?". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
- ^ Richman, Jesse T.; Chattha, Gulshan A.; Earnest, David C. (December 1, 2014). "Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?". Electoral Studies. 36: 149–157. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2014.09.001.
- ^ Bump, Philip (October 27, 2014). "Methodological challenges affect study of non-citizens' voting". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
- ^ Ansolabehere, Stephen; Luks, Samantha; Schaffner, Brian F. (December 2015). "The perils of cherry picking low frequency events in large sample surveys". Electoral Studies. 40: 409–10. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2015.07.002.
- ^ "Trump's Claims About Illegal Votes Are Nonsense. I Debunked the Study He Cites as 'Evidence.'". Politico Magazine. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
- ^ Nast, Condé; Lapowsky, Issie (January 25, 2017). "Author of Trump's Favorite Voter Fraud Study Says Everyone's Wrong". WIRED. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Willis, Derek (November 7, 2016). "Double Voting is Extremely Rare, and One Solution Might Be Worse". ProPublica. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ Kinsey, Troy (September 5, 2020). "Q&A: How Common is Double-Voting?". News 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Sullivan, Andy; Ax, Joseph (September 9, 2020). "Despite Trump claims, voter fraud is extremely rare. Here is how U.S. states keep it that way". Reuters.
Experts say election fraud is vanishingly rare in the United States...Like other forms of voter fraud, double voting appears to be exceptionally rare, according to multiple studies.
- ^ a b McDonald, Michael P.; Levitt, Justin (June 2008). "Seeing Double Voting: An Extension of the Birthday Problem". Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy. 7 (2): 111–122. doi:10.1089/elj.2008.7202. ISSN 1533-1296.
We show that these allegations are inflated by not appropriately accounting for the Birthdate Problem, and discuss the implications of the Birthdate Problem for the debate over double voting and the means to address this perceived fraud...Among these are a handful of substantiated instances of persons who have voted twice in the same election, though these are notable mostly for their rarity.
- ^ a b Goel, Sharad; Meredith, Marc; Morse, Michael; Rothschild, David; Shirani-Mehr, Houshmand (2020). "One Person, One Vote: Estimating the Prevalence of Double Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections" (PDF). American Political Science Review. 114 (2): 456–469. doi:10.1017/S000305541900087X. ISSN 0003-0554.
Removing the registration with an earlier registration date when two share the same name and birthdate—could impede approximately 300 legitimate votes for each double vote prevented...We estimate that at most only 1 in 4,000 votes cast in 2012 were double votes, with measurement error in turnout records possibly explaining a significant portion, if not all, of this.
- ^ Niesse, Mark (February 8, 2022). "Investigation undercuts claim that 1,000 people voted twice in Georgia". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on October 18, 2022. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Parks, Miles (June 4, 2023). "How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud". NPR. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
ERIC is currently the only system that can catch if someone votes in more than one state, which is illegal.
- ^ Koslof, Evan (October 19, 2020). "VERIFY: Yes, it's legal to be registered to vote in multiple states. Here's one way officials track moves". wusa9.com. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ "Double Voting". NCSL. July 4, 2024. Archived from the original on August 28, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ a b Wines, Michael (September 7, 2022). "In Voter Fraud, Penalties Often Depend on Who's Voting". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
A review by The New York Times of some 400 voting-fraud charges filed nationwide since 2017 underscores what critics of fraud crackdowns have long said: Actual prosecutions are blue-moon events, and often netted people who didn't realize they were breaking the law.
- ^ "Voting felonies dropped for 5 from North Carolina under plea". AP News. August 13, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Healy, Jack (August 2, 2018). "Arrested, Jailed and Charged With a Felony. For Voting". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ a b c Lauren Carroll (January 25, 2017). "Sean Spicer wrongly uses Pew study to bolster claim that non-citizens vote in large numbers". PolitiFact.com. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Pam Fessler (February 14, 2012). "Study: 1.8 Million Dead People Still Registered to Vote". NPR. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- ^ Kate Kelly (February 2012). "Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient Evidence That America's Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade" (PDF). Washington: Pew Research Center. p. 12. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Cassidy, Christina A. (October 25, 2016). "AP FACT CHECK: Voter roll problems do not equate to fraud". AP News. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ "Dead voters on rolls, other glitches found in 6 key states". Chicago Tribune. December 4, 2004. Archived from the original on September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ a b Ackerman, S.J. (November 1998). "The Vote That Failed". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
- ^ Smith, Ron (May 8, 2022). "Want to find real election fraud? Look at the history of Kansas, United States in 1800s". Kansas Reflector. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Garrison, Zach. "Lecompton Constitution". Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Shafer, Ronald (November 24, 2020). "The ugliest presidential election in history: Fraud, voter intimidation and a backroom deal". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
Vote fraud was widespread on both sides.
- ^ Shafer, Ronald (December 28, 2020). "Trump 2024? Only one president has returned to power after losing reelection". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
Like Trump, Stephen Grover Cleveland lost reelection amid charges of voter fraud. Unlike the 2020 election, there actually was clear evidence of fraud in some states, especially Indiana.
- ^ "Barnes Compton (1830–1898) Extended Biography". Annapolis, Maryland: Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series). 2008. MSA SC 3520-1545.
- ^ "John Middleton Clayton (1840–1889)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. November 15, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
- ^ Dotinga, Randy (March 26, 2023). "Did voter fraud kill Edgar Allan Poe?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
- ^ Zarrelli, Natalie (September 7, 2016). "Election Fraud in the 1800s Involved Kidnapping and Forced Drinking". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
- ^ Zeitz, Josh (January 27, 2021). "Worried About a Rigged Election? Here's One Way to Handle It". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Fund, John (July 13, 2010). "Felons for Franken". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ "Reality Check: Is The Election Rigged?". CBS Minnesota. October 18, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Tolchin, Martin (February 11, 1990). "How Johnson Won Election He'd Lost". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ "BROOKLYN GRAND JURY FINDS FRAUD IN 8 PRIMARIES". The New York Times. September 5, 1984. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Mayer, Jane (October 29, 2012). "The Voter-Fraud Myth". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
- ^ Pearson, Rick (October 19, 2016). "Despite Trump claim, officials say technology means vote fraud thing of past". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
- ^ "Election fraud Chicago style: Illinois' decades-old notoriety for election corruption is legendary". Salon. February 14, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
- ^ "Report of the Special January 1982 Grand Jury" (PDF). United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. December 14, 1984.
- ^ "2 REVIEWS BARE UP TO 100,000 IRREGULARITIES". Chicago Tribune. March 8, 1987. Archived from the original on April 22, 2024. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
- ^ "'MASSIVE' FRAUD REPORTED DURING CHICAGO PRIMARY". Washington Post. March 9, 1987. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
- ^ "WEBB ASKS PRIMARY VOTE FRAUD PROBE". Chicago Tribune. March 11, 1987. Archived from the original on August 28, 2024. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ a b Chapman, Tim (October 28, 2016). "You can't keep up with South Florida voter fraud without a scorecard". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ "Vote-Fraud Ruling Shifts Pennsylvania Senate". The New York Times. February 19, 1994. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ "Proof Of Illegal Voters Falls Short, Keeping Sanchez In House". CNN. February 13, 1998. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Navarro, Mireya (March 5, 1998). "Fraud Ruling Invalidates Miami Mayoral Election". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ "Court orders new election in E. Chicago". Chicago Tribune. August 7, 2004. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Khan, Natasha; Carson, Corbin (August 13, 2012). "Election-fraud not as common as recent voter ID laws suggest". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ "Ex-selectman pleads guilty to 2012 election fraud". AP News. August 6, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Perry, Kimball (July 17, 2013). "Ohioan gets 5-year prison term for illegal voting". USA TODAY. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ Coolidge, Sharon (March 21, 2014). "Both parties jeer embrace of fraudulent voter". Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ Roebuck, Jeremy (September 27, 2022). "Former Abscam Congressman 'Ozzie' Myers is headed back to federal prison". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
- ^ "Southfield clerk pleads no contest in 2018 election case". CBS Detroit. October 20, 2022. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ Wingblad, Aileen (December 9, 2022). "Former city clerk sentenced for election-related crime". The Oakland Press. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ HudspethBlackburn, Piper; Pathe, Simone (March 26, 2024). "Republican at center of 2018 ballot fraud scandal wins House primary in North Carolina". CNN. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Brummer, Sheila (April 2, 2024). "The wife of a Woodbury County supervisor convicted of voter fraud is sentenced to four months in prison". Iowa Public Radio. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ "Woman Arrested for Voter Fraud Scheme". www.justice.gov. January 12, 2023. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
- ^ Nierenberg, Amelia (January 21, 2024). "Election Fraud Is Rare. Except, Maybe, in Bridgeport, Conn". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Corbett-Davies, Sam; Konitzer, Tobias; Rothschild, David (October 24, 2016). "Poll: 60% of Republicans believe illegal immigrants vote; 43% believe people vote using dead people's names". Washington Post. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
- ^ a b DiCamillo, Mark (November 5, 2022). "Release #2022-21: California voters in broad agreement that American democracy faces critical dangers, but Democrats and Republicans disagree on the nature of the threats". Institute of Governmental Studies UC Berkeley. p. 5. Archived from the original on January 25, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
- ^ Kamisar, Ben (June 20, 2023). "Almost a third of Americans still believe the 2020 election result was fraudulent". NBC News. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
- ^ Ura, By Alexa (June 25, 2021). "Few Texans believe voting fraud is common, UT/TT poll shows, undercutting GOP rationale for tightening voting rules". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Montanaro, Domenico (July 2, 2021). "Poll: More Americans Are Concerned About Voting Access Than Fraud Prevention". NPR.
- ^ Lee, Don S.; Rhee, Inbok; Kuk, John (July 30, 2024). "Flawed research into election fraud can undermine democracy and intensify polarization". The Conversation. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ "How false fraud claims are eroding integrity of American election system". PBS News. October 7, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Viala-Gaudefroy, Jérôme (March 3, 2024). "Why do millions of Americans believe the 2020 presidential election was 'stolen' from Donald Trump?". The Conversation. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ Schwarz, Jon (October 19, 2016). "Donald Trump's "Voter Fraud" Lies Are Part of the GOP's DNA". The Intercept. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Hsu, Tiffany; Thompson, Stuart A.; Myers, Steven Lee (January 9, 2024). "Elections and Disinformation Are Colliding Like Never Before in 2024". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Bowler, Shaun; Donovan, Todd (2016). "A Partisan Model of Electoral Reform: Voter Identification Laws and Confidence in State Elections". State Politics & Policy Quarterly. 16 (3). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 340–361. doi:10.1177/1532440015624102. ISSN 1532-4400.
We find that the relationship between photo identification laws and confidence in state elections was polarized and conditioned by party identification in 2014. Democrats in states with strict photo identification laws were less confident in their state's elections. Republicans in states with strict identification laws were more confident than others.
- ^ Swenson, Ali; Smith, Michelle R. (December 6, 2023). "Trump tells supporters, 'Guard the vote.' Here's the phrase's backstory and why it's raising concern". AP News. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ a b Riccardi, Nicholas; Swenson, Ali (January 24, 2024). "Trump leans into voter fraud playbook, preparing to cry foul if he loses expected Biden rematch". AP News. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ a b "Democrats grow concerned Republicans are planting seeds with legal suits to overturn a Trump defeat". NBC News. September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ a b Montlake, Simon (August 28, 2024). "Will the 2024 election results be accepted by all? Wisconsin is a key test". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Harte, Julia; Reid, Tim (December 7, 2023). "Voter advocates, conservative activists brace for 2024 election showdowns". Reuters.
- ^ a b Davis, Wynne (November 4, 2022). "What is voter intimidation and how concerned should you be?". NPR.
While voter intimidation is always illegal and a concern during election season, there are some differences in 2022 from the presidential election in 2020. A lot of the differences stem from the disinformation and false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, Morales-Doyle said.
- ^ a b Itkowitz, Colby; Marley, Patrick; Morse, Clara Ence (May 10, 2024). "Noncitizen voting is extremely rare. Republicans are focusing on it anyway". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ a b Gardner, Amy; Arnsdorf, Isaac (July 11, 2024). "GOP jump-starts 2024 election challenges with Trump-inspired lawsuits". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
- ^ "Trump says he'll accept 2024 results if they're 'fair and legal' while airing false 2020 fraud claims". NBC News. June 28, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
- ^ Cohen, Marshall (April 12, 2024). "How Speaker Johnson helped Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ Stone, Peter (September 3, 2024). "Trump and allies plant seeds for 'chaos and discord' if he loses, experts warn". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ "The Coming Election Battles". New York Times. September 5, 2024.
But the likeliest source of trouble at the moment is Georgia, which embodies Republicans' two-pronged approach: They've set up new hurdles to voting and a process to stall — or even outright avoid — certifying the results if Trump loses.
- ^ a b "Trump plans 'major investigation into voter fraud' amid groundless claims". The Guardian. January 25, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Maxwell Tani (February 12, 2017). "'You have provided absolutely no evidence': Stephanopoulos grills Trump adviser in a testy interview about voter fraud". Business Insider. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Farley, Robert (February 14, 2017). "No Evidence of Busing Voters to N.H." FactCheck.org. Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
- ^ "Attorney general's office: No evidence out-of-state voters bused into New Hampshire". Concord Monitor. May 29, 2018.
- ^ Ryan, Josiah (January 27, 2017). "Trump-cited study author (still) refuses to show proof of voter fraud". CNN. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
- ^ Lopez, German (January 25, 2017). "It's official: Trump is taking his voter fraud myth to the White House — with real consequences". Vox. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- ^ Gabrielle Levy (January 19, 2017). "Tiffany Trump, Steve Bannon, Steven Mnuchin Registered to Vote in Multiple States". U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ Ellen L. Weintraub (February 10, 2017). "Statement of Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub Regarding Allegations by the President of the United States of Widespread Voter Fraud in New Hampshire" (PDF). Washington: Federal Election Commission (FEC). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Eli Watkins (February 10, 2017). "FEC commissioner asks Trump for voter fraud evidence". Washington: CNN. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Nelson, Louis (May 11, 2017). "Trump signs executive order creating voter fraud commission". Politico. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
- ^ "Immigration hardliner says Trump team preparing plans for wall, mulling Muslim registry". Reuters. November 16, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Trump's immigration whisperer". Politico. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Stephen Miller's bushels of Pinocchios for false voter-fraud claims". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Dick Morris: There's proof that over 1 million people voted twice in 2012". @politifact. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Kobach warns that noncitizens could tip election". Kansas. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Kris Kobach agrees with Donald Trump that 'millions' voted illegally but offers no evidence". kansascity. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "The conservative gladiator from Kansas behind restrictive voting laws". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ "Trump's voter-fraud commission itself is a fraud". The Washington Post. July 18, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2017, "...In fact, the real fraud is the commission itself...."
- ^ Miles Rapoport on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (May 30, 2017): "President Trump's decision to establish a panel to study voter fraud and suppression, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, has been roundly criticized by voter rights advocates and Democrats." ... [Miles Rapoport, Senior Democracy Practice Fellow Ash Center]: "There are a number of really serious problems with the Commission as it has been announced and conceptualized, which have led many people to say that its conclusions are pre-determined and that it will be used as an excuse for new efforts to restrict access to voting."
- ^ Michael Waldman, Donald Trump Tells His Voter Fraud Panel: Find Me 'Something', Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law (July 20, 2017) (also republished at The Daily Beast): "The panel was created to justify one of the more outlandish presidential fibs ... After Trump was roundly mocked for his claim of 3 to 5 million illegal voters, the panel was launched in an effort to try to rustle up some evidence—any evidence—for the charge.... The purpose of the panel is not just to try to justify his laughable claims of millions of invisible illegal voters. It aims to stir fears, to lay the ground for new efforts to restrict voting. Trump's claims, after all, are just a cartoon version of the groundless arguments already used to justify restrictive voting laws."
- ^ Mark Berman & David Weigel, Trump’s voting commission asked states to hand over election data. Some are pushing back., Washington Post (June 30, 2017): "Experts described the request as ... a recipe for potential voter suppression.... 'This is an attempt on a grand scale to purport to match voter rolls with other information in an apparent effort to try and show that the voter rolls are inaccurate and use that as a pretext to pass legislation that will make it harder for people to register to vote,' said Rick Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California, Irvine. Hasen said he has "no confidence" in whatever results the committee produces. He said the commission and its request create a number of concerns, including that it is an election group created by one candidate for office—Trump, who already is campaigning for reelection—and headed by Pence, another political candidate. 'It's just a recipe for a biased and unfair report,' Hasen said. "And it's completely different from the way that every other post-election commission has been done."
- ^ Max Greenwood, Newspapers rip Trump voter fraud panel in July Fourth editorials, The Hill (July 4, 2017).
- ^ a b Tackett, Michael; Wines, Michael (January 4, 2018). "Trump Disbands Commission on Voter Fraud". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ a b "Report: Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud". AP News. August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ Bertrand, Natasha; Samuelsohn, Darren. "What if Trump won't accept 2020 defeat?". Politico. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Gessen, Masha. "What Could Happen If Donald Trump Rejects Electoral Defeat?". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ "Trump's false claims of rigged voting are 'a perilous thing,' says top Republican expert". Yahoo news. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ "US election: Trump won't commit to peaceful transfer of power". BBC News. September 24, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Choi, Matthew. "Trump declines to commit to a peaceful transition of power after election". Politico. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Kiely, Eugene; Rieder, Rem (September 25, 2020). "Trump's Repeated False Attacks on Mail-In Ballots". FactCheck.org. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ "Here's the reality behind Trump's claims about mail voting". Associated Press. September 30, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ "Ignoring FBI And Fellow Republicans, Trump Continues Assault On Mail-In Voting". NPR. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Chris Cillizza. "Analysis: The FBI director just totally shut down Donald Trump's vote-fraud conspiracy". CNN. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Viebeck, Elise (September 28, 2020). "Courts view GOP fraud claims skeptically as Democrats score key legal victories over mail voting". Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Helderman, Rosalind S.; Brown, Emma; Reinhard, Beth (October 30, 2020). "Republicans shift from challenging rules to preparing to challenge individual ballots". Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ a b Yourish, Karen; Smart, Charlie (May 24, 2024). "Trump's Pattern of Sowing Election Doubt Intensifies in 2024". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024.
- ^ Steinhauser, Paul (November 7, 2020). "Biden wins presidency, Trump denied second term in White House, Fox News projects". Fox News. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Stephen Collinson; Maeve Reston. "Biden defeats Trump in an election he made about character of the nation and the President". CNN. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Baragona, Justin (December 14, 2020). "Newsmax Finally Admits Joe Biden Won the Election". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ "Biden defeats Trump for White House, says 'time to heal'". Associated Press. November 7, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ King, Ledyard; Fritze, John (November 7, 2020). "Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says Trump won't concede, revives baseless claims of voter fraud". USA Today. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Davis, Tina (November 7, 2020). "Trump's Election Lawsuits: Where the Fights Are Playing Out". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Rubin, Jennifer. "Opinion | Republicans are still pretending there was election fraud". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Saletan, William (December 18, 2020). "Republicans Are Manufacturing a Legitimacy Crisis". Slate. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
- ^ Wines, Michael (February 27, 2021). "In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules". The New York Times.
- ^ "Exhaustive fact check finds little evidence of voter fraud, but 2020's 'Big Lie' lives on". PBS News. December 17, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Yoon, Robert (August 27, 2023). "Trump's drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts". AP News. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ Hannah Knowles; Paulina Villegas (May 15, 2021). "Man charged with wife's murder illegally cast her ballot for Trump, officials say: 'I just thought, give him another vote'". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Vinny Vella (April 30, 2021). "A Delaware County man admitted he cast an illegal ballot for ex-President Trump and gets sentenced to probation". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Amy B Wang (October 22, 2021). "Nevada Republican who claimed someone stole dead wife's ballot is charged with voter fraud". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b Sparks, Steven (August 30, 2024). "Two-thirds of Americans say Trump unprepared to accept the election outcome: POLL". ABC News. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Cappelletti, Joey; Swenson, Ali (June 14, 2024). "The RNC is launching a massive effort to monitor voting. Critics say it threatens to undermine trust". AP News. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Map: 29 million Americans live under new voter ID laws put in place since 2020". NBC News. March 12, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ "7 voices sound off on NC's controversial voter ID law". PBS News. October 4, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
Since 2011, 15 states — mostly Republican-controlled — have passed laws requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls in order to be able to vote.
- ^ "Voter ID". National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
- ^ Cillizza, Chris (June 25, 2021). "Analysis: Voter ID requirements are really popular. So why are they so divisive?". CNN. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Rakich, Nathaniel (April 2, 2021). "Americans Oppose Many Voting Restrictions — But Not Voter ID Laws". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
Indeed, voter ID laws — which Republicans have pushed for years — are quite popular in general.
- ^ Schouten, Fredreka; Shelton, Shania (May 2, 2023). "Republican-controlled states target college students' voting power ahead of high-stakes 2024 elections". CNN. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Morin, Rebecca (July 11, 2024). "House pass bill to block noncitizens from voting". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Leingang, Rachel. "US House to vote on bill to require proof of citizenship to vote despite no evidence of non-citizen ballots". The Guardian. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Wang, Hansi Lo (August 22, 2024). "Supreme Court grants GOP bid to require citizenship proof for some Arizona voters". NPR. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ "The Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) 2016 Comprehensive Report" (PDF). Election Assistance Commission. June 28, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ "Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) 2018 Comprehensive report" (PDF). Election Assistance Commission. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ Buchanan, Larry; Parlapiano, Alicia (October 7, 2020). "Two of These Mail Ballot Signatures Are by the Same Person. Which Ones?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Table 14: How States Verify Voted Absentee/Mail Ballots". National Conference of State Legislatures. January 22, 2024. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
- ^ "Post-Election Audits". National Conference of State Legislatures. March 26, 2024. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
- ^ "States removed 17 million voters from rolls in two years, government agency says". NBC News. June 27, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ "The Caged Ballot". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
- ^ Ingraham, Christopher (July 20, 2017). "This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take it nationwide". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ Hegeman, Roxana (December 10, 2019). "Multistate voter database suspended in lawsuit settlement". Associated Press. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ a b Moomaw, Graham (September 20, 2023). "After ERIC withdrawal, Virginia strikes deals with 6 states to share voter data". Virginia Mercury. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ Underhill, Wendy (June 20, 2023). "More Withdrawals From Voter Data Group ERIC Likely". NCSL. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ a b Vigdor, Neil (March 7, 2023). "G.O.P. States Abandon Group That Helps Fight Voter Fraud". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
- ^ a b Parks, Miles (October 20, 2023). "Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they're scrambling to recreate it". NPR. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
External links
[edit]- Electoral fraud article on Ballotpedia
- "Campaign of fear" investigative series by Reuters on election worker intimidation after 2020