Voter Fraud: Facts & Fictions

I am not concerned about voter fraud. There has never been any systematic voter fraud of consequence in recent elections. The last Presidential election was the most closely monitored, most re-counted and most challenged election in at least a hundred years. Every Court case alleging voter fraud was thrown out of every court because no-one could find any proof of voter fraud that could have affected the election. All of the reported fraud cases were committed by Republican voters who voted for relatives as well as themselves and Republican politicians who were registered to vote in multiple states.

There have been several instances of State actors defrauding voters by such means as offering voter services to collect ballots from senior citizens which they replaced with their own, last minute de-registering voters from voting demographics that they did not want to count, and instituting onerous access to polling sites or drop boxes to limit the access to voting for people from areas likely to vote against them.

Techniques to institutionally defraud the voters from their right to vote or to have their vote count in many states have long existed and are still being developed and honed.

The RNC around 2019 put together a gerrymandering committee to determine the best ways for Republican State legislatures to gerrymander their districts to assure that Republicans would stay in power with less than 40% of the popular vote. Several Republican states refused to honor their own state's Supreme Court directives to correct their grotesquely gerrymandered districts. This committee was funded by $10 Million donations from wealthy banks and corporations. The only one caught on record with such a donation was Citi-Bank.

The 2020 census included citizenship questions proposed by the trump at a time when Latina immigrants were the sacrificial target of the trump’s need to find some defenseless group to demonize. The citizenship question was designed by RNC strategists as a means to dissuade Latina’s in democratic leaning districts from participating in the census. The implicit threat that census information would be turned over to ICE as a means to track illegal immigrants that they may know was the disincentive. Further, the census door to door workers were greatly limited in their ability to do the statistically requisite door to door surveys in highly populated poorer areas due to Covid. The Census Bureau asked for a two month extension to assure accuracy of the Census count. The trump responded by requiring that they finish a month earlier than originally planned so they he would still have Presidential oversight over the final tallies. This whole effort was a part of a strategy to undercount the people in less Republican friendly regions to justify redistricting to better gerrymander the districts.

The people who believe that there was significant voter fraud in the last election are victims of intense propaganda that infers such fraud exists. It is no different than the putin’s Russian population who believed that Ukraine was an enemy of Russia that has been doing all sorts of despicable things to Russian nationals. Propaganda. PERIOD. 

The Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee under the trump concluded that Russia did make use of our democratic society’s free speech to infiltrate our social media platforms to swing the electorate in swing districts toward electing the trump in 2016 - and that the Russians were using similar methods from as early as 2019 to convince Americans that the 2020 election would be fraudulent - to amplify and increase the credence of the trump's claims already being made. Russia was developed a disinformation science that they have been deploying in most democracies around the world to sow dissent - recognizing that dissent based on their fine turned ‘alternate’ facts result in divisiveness within the populous. People who accept ‘alternate’ facts which are seemingly plausible but untrue conclusions have no common basis in fact which can be used to resolve disagreements.

Unfortunately, the Republican Cartel and the FOX entertainment news have adopted these alternate realities because it is politically expedient to the politicians to sow fear of their opponents and enraging a populous with ‘alternate’ fact ‘news-like’ commentary keeps viewers involved and keeps the FOX entertainment news complex well funded.

Now the Republican Cartel is using all of these propaganda tools to keep their most radicalized base engaged; They are behind the realized treats to long standing election administrators and poll workers as well as their families and have recently bragged about getting several thousand election deniers hired to work within the voting authorization, acceptance, counting and administration positions in Republican led states.

There were many single point instances of the trump’s attempts that were thwarted by single individuals honoring their oath’s of office - any one of which could have let the trump get falsely elected. The RNC and Republican State legislatures have systematically removed or disempowered most of the Republicans that stood up for free and fair vote counting and certification that thwarted the trump’s attempt to declare himself the winner of an election which he lost. They are continuing to do this to this day. Hundreds of Million dollars in dark money from wealthy conservatives are going into the campaigns of election deniers who want to legislatively ignore the popular vote in favor or their state legislature’s vote.

It is all part of a long term plan that is corrupting every aspect of the ability of people to cast their vote and to have their vote be freely and fairly counted. The ‘fraud’ is within the RNC and Republican Cartel linked state legislators. There is no systematic voter fraud that could have changed any election result with a vote difference greater than a few hundred votes. There is systematic political manipulation that limits some people’s ability to get to a polling site or a sanctioned voter drop box. There is new and systematic political influence in every aspect of how voters are authorized to vote, how and if their vote gets counted, if their vote counts at all due to grotesquely gerrymandered voting districts, and arguing that State Legislatures have the constitutional right to just ignore the vote altogether and politically appoint winners and losers that they alone can choose.

The Federalist Society’s hand picked six conservative card-carrying Federalist Society member  Supreme Court Justices have been chipping away at legal voting protections which had made many of these practices illegal, arguing that they are no longer necessary. 

None of these practices are compatible with a functional democracy. NONE.

We need to collectively vote against all election denying candidates at every level, while we still have any opportunity left to do so - they are all clear and present dangers to keeping our democracy in tact 

I'm not concerned about voter fraud because it's exceedingly rare in our country.

I'm very concerned about voter intimidation and voter suppression, and the way the MAGA crowd continues to lie about how elections work.

Claiming voter fraud before an election is absurd and shows how ridculous this line of thinking is unless they plan to vote fraudulently themselves.  If the outcome of an election doesn't go the way they want they say "I told you so" then claim massive fraud.  If the outcome goes the way they want, you don't hear anything more from them except - no fraud, no worries!  How can anyone ignore the total lack of logic this shows?  There's only fraud if there candidate doesn't win?  What a childish way of thinking.

My concern is with the false allegations of voter fraud being used to pass voter suppression legislation.

Voter fraud incident rates are less than 1% of all ballots cast based on 20+ investigations & studies over the last 20+ years.

Most investigations found the majority of allegations are made by losing politicians and  turn out to be clerical errors but are used for voter suppression laws.

Below are summaries of some of these investigations:

(1) Brennan Center for Social Justice 0.0003 & 0.0025% 

(2) Columbia University study found 24 people pled guilty to illegal voting between 2002-2005. Most cases reported in the news are unsubstantiated claims by the loser, or errors made by administrators or voters. Long history of voter fraud allegations used to restrict voting

(3) Professor Loyola Law School identified 31 incidents between 2000-2014 involving 1B ballots cast in general, primary, special, and municipal elections. 

(4) 2 Arizona State University studies (2012, 2016) found 10 cases between 2000-2012. The 2nd study examine states that politicians said had fraud between 2012-2016 and found none

(5) study of 2016 Presidential election found 4 documented cases

Most cases of voter fraud turn out to be clerical errors or bad data matching practices like

(1) problem with matching people from one big computer list to another

(2) data entry error

(3) confusion between two different people with the same name, or someone signing in on the wrong line of a pollbook.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/01/0-000002-percent-of-all-the-ballots-cast-in-the-2016-election-were-fraudulent/

https://votingrights.news21.com/article/election-fraud/

https://votingwars.news21.com/voter-fraud-is-not-a-persistent-problem/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/

http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/Politics_of_Voter_Fraud_Final.pdf

https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Briefing_Memo_Debunking_Voter_Fraud_Myth.pdf

no im not concerned it was the republicans who scream voter fraud and tried to over throw our government , voter fraud is rare and what i1 out of a thousand votes wont change the out come if it does happen

Voter fraud is essentially a myth. Tired of the lies and the bullshit.

It's hard to even fathom how someone could believe Donald Trump, a man who it is well establish is nothing more than a snake oil salesman. Everyone around Donald Trump of any authority  that worked for him in government has said his story is false. But as any psychologist would tell you cognitive dissonance is playing its part and rather than look stupid people will go ahead believing the lie.
In addition could someone please explain how anybody could vote for a seemingly stupid iying idiot like Carrie lake. Sadly it seems for the Republican party the first prerequisite is that you will believe anything as long as it's negative, and that you are willing  to stand over anybody who is trying to vote with body armor on and an Semi-automatic rifle. That's where the Republican party is today. 

evidence would be good, but there simply isn't any. this is how authoritarians sew distrust. its not new.

The only fraud is Republican lies about it.

Only if these crazy election deniers get into office. The dumbing down of America will be complete. The monsters you create will come back to bite you in the rear end. Be very careful what you wish for. Had the crazies gotten any further, many of you would have died in 1/6. They would not have stopped to check affiliations. Wake up. 

I am concerned because a common thread of Republican responses to this question is the answer, "Not if I win." I'm afraid the politcal-legal circus of 2020 is only going to be amplified this year because there will be so many local and state skirmishes. This isn't the way the founders envisioned it.

From Republican 

If you voted for Trump you are exactly the same as the people that elected Hitler.

In general, I'm not concerned about voter fraud, but if it's going to happen, it's going to be done by Republicans. Just about every confirmed case in 2020 was committed by a Republican. 

I am concerned about voter fraud, but the voter fraud I am worried about is being done by governors, state legislators, Republican secretary of States, GOP US Congressmen, and former POTUS #45.  VOTERS are not committing fraud, Conservative politicians ARE! 

Voter fraud is extremely rare in this country. Fear mongering by the right has made this an issue as they have no favorable or popular policy issues.

I'm not concerned abt voter fraud. That's just another Republican boogie man. 

Why would I be concerned about something which statistics (facts) show is an extremely rare occurance?  Maybe I would be if the sources I watch brainwashed me into thinking it is actually a problem?  I'm much more concerned about gerrymandering and voter suppression which statistically (factually) speaking has a much larger impact.

Never in my life have I ever imagined that Americans dressed in camouflage clothing and carrying rifles would be allowed to camp out at ballot dropboxes to frighten and intimidate voters.

Such actions by self-appointed right wing "patriots" are indeed frightening and dangerous not just to victims of this intimidation but to the future of American democracy itself.

It's sad and disgusting that these thugs are not only allowed to intimidate voters but are encouraged to do so by provocateurs who build on 2020 election lies to incite violence and threats of violence.

We see the results of this incitement to violence in the attack and serious injuries of 82 year old Paul Pelose with a hammer in his own home in the middle of the night fueled by ridiculous and scurrilous conspiracy theories and election lies peddled by MAGA Republican political candidates, 2020 election deniers, and the likes of Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk, Ted Cruz, Fox News propagandists, and others.

Enough is enough!

Every American who loves democracy should stop and think about the political violence, the corrosive rhetoric of certain political candidates who traffic in election denialism, actual attacks on Congresspeople, and dangerous calls for a civil war by domestic terrorists.

We're not innocent fans cheering at a championship football game and rooting for our home team. This chilling political extremism is happening now with malicious intent.

We should call out our politicians when they casually spew hate, lies, and misinformation, and ask the same question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s:  "At long last, have you no decency?"

The only "voter fraud" I have heard about has been commited by republicans, not democrats.  

Voter fraud is a Republican propaganda lie, where 99.9% of the actual dozen or so documented cases turned out to be perpetuated by Republicans trying to prove that there was voter fraud.

I'm not scared of voter fraud because almost all people who do it are rich RepublicaNazis with houses in more than one state who know they'll get off with a slap on the wrist. I'm concerned about RepublicaNazi voter suppression, because the American right, the bad guys in all of American history, have been suppressing the worker's vote since the country was founded.

Only worried about fraud and intimidation by "Republicans", more accurate labeled American Fascists.

Do you want examples of voter fraud here are some that just happened recently:

The deputy director of Milwaukee’s election commission has been fired after she fraudulently requested military absentee ballots and sent them to a state Republican representative. 
Republican voter fraud. Outright tampering with the election. Add in armed people and camouflage with AR 15s sitting across from voters As they are trying to cast their legal votes. What is this boil down to this boils down to election fraud big time by the Republican party mix with all their bullshit lies. This is not unlike what happened in the lat 1930's 

CAUSES ASKS: "Are you concerned about voter fraud?"  ME: Not particularly, and especially not in my state.  However, I am deeply concerned about voter intimidation, voter suppression, and the election to vote-controlling positions (governors, secretary of state) by those who would overturn the true vote count should they dislike it.