Because of the recent presidential election, the phrase “voter fraud” has been pumped into the national conversation. Wikipedia defines voter fraud as an action that “involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both.” During the course of his recent campaign, Donald Trump has repeatedly said, “The only way we are going to lose is if this election is rigged.” This false statement has effective built a distrust in the electoral process for his supporters, but they are being fed a misinformed narrative. Extensive research has proven that voter fraud is, in fact, extremely rare. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, “Most reported incidents of voting fraud are actually traceable to other sources, such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices.” After meticulously studying voter fraud in elections, the organization found that it only occurred between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. This tells us that the majority of voter fraud allegations are baseless.
When it comes to voting fraud, several myths exist, all of which can be debunked.
1.) “There have been thousands of instances of voter fraud.”
The Brennan Center states, “A comprehensive 2014 study published in the Washington Post found 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud from 2000 to 2014, out of more than 1 billion ballots cast. Even this tiny number is likely inflated, as the study’s author counted not just prosecutions or convictions, but any and all credible claims.”
2.) “Voter Impersonation is rampant at the polls.”
A twelve year study of election data found only 10 incidents of voter impersonation out of 146 million registered voters.
3.) “Undocumented immigrants are voting.”
The Brennan Center for Justice reports that of the 23.5 million votes casted in districts with high noncitizen populations, only 30 cases of improper voting were reported and referred for further investigation.
4.) “Millions of Americans are voting twice.”
Researchers analyzed the 2012 election and found that out of the 129,000,000 votes cast, only 0.02% were double votes, most of which were the result of a measurement error.
5.) “Voting by mail leads to increased voter fraud.”
According to The Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative publication, Oregon, the state to longest conduct universal mail-in voting, has reported only 14 cases of voting fraud related to mail-in voting over the span of 19 years. 15 million votes were casted during this time.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
@/soyouwanttotalkabout on Instagram compiled this information and provided additional commentary on what they believe Donald Trump’s intentions are with making these false claims about voter fraud. The account is a great resource for those looking to educate themselves on American politics, prominent politicians’ values and histories, and the various social issues affecting our country. I definitely recommend checking them out!
Sydney your blogs never disappoint, I love how you speak on topics like this.