As citizens of a democracy, it is important for us to criticize and question political decisions, policies, candidates, and processes. However, recently there has been a rise in the number of accusations of fraud in our elections, especially for the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. There are two main types of fraud that are considered when talking about elections. The first is voter fraud which is defined as the illegal behavior of individual voters.
Voter Impersonation Fraud
A person impersonates someone else to vote.
Voting by the Dead
This is a form of voter impersonation fraud where a person voters for someone who is dead.
Incorrect Voting Location
This occurs when a person votes in a district where the voter does not live.
Vote Selling
When a person offers to vote a certain way for pay.
Non-citizen Voting
It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in state or national elections. However, some non-citizens are able to obtain voter registration cards. In states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia there is a connection between motor vehicle registration cards and voter registration cards.
Felon Voting
People guilty of a felony typically lose the right to vote temporarily or permanently, however, this depends on the state. Felons don’t lose the right to vote in Maine and Vermont. Other states like Alabama and Florida can prohibit felons from voting permanently.
The second type of fraud is electoral fraud which is defined as illegal interference with the process of an election.
Ballot Harvesting
When a person or group collects absentee or mail-in ballots to submit them. This presents the opportunity to prevent certain ballots from being counted. With the pandemic, more people have chosen to vote by absentee ballot than before. The rate has actually tripled since 1980.
Robocall campaigns
Campaigns that spread misinformation about election dates or polling locations.
So how big is fraud? Is the fairness of democratic elections in jeopardy?
Numerous studies and organizations claim no. The Brennan Center’s Seminal report on the issue, The Truth About Voter Fraud, discovered that most reported incidents of voter fraud can be traced to other sources such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices. The supposed voter fraud is not actually intentional. In fact, incident rates for elections meticulously scrutinized for fraud are between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. A study conducted by Project Vote found that voter fraud is extremely rare. Between 2002 and 2005, only 24 people were convicted or pleaded guilty to illegal voting at the federal level. A review of news stories over a two year period discovered that reports of voter fraud fell into three categories: unsubstantiated or false claims by the loser of a close race, mischief and administrative error. The Fifth Circuit, in an opinion reviewing Texas’s strict photo ID law, noted that there were only two convictions for in-person voter impersonation fraud out of the 20 million votes cast in the decade before Texas even passed the law. Even in the Crawford Supreme Court Case, it was stated that the record in the case contained no evidence of in-person voter impersonation fraud in the entire history of Indiana despite Indiana’s voter ID law being constitutional. Other organizations and studies like the Heritage Foundation, The Washington Post, the United States Government Accountability Office, etc have all established that voter and electoral fraud are extremely rare and not a persistent problem.
Despite the abundance of evidence, former president Trump has continuously perpetuated the myth of the stolen election for the 2020 presidential race. He and his team brought about 60 lawsuits against multiple states and offered financial incentives for anyone with proof of fraud. In all cases, no definitive evidence was ever found. As a result, 59 out of the 60 cases have been rejected. Surprisingly, the cases are often rejected by Republican appointed judges. It’s not only Trump’s administration, though, that continues to allege fraud despite the lack of evidence. Recent polls have shown that the majority of Republicans believe the election was fraudulent. Trump’s fiery remarks have already prompted a number of red states to discuss toughening state’s restrictions and rules on voting. In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers are considering reversing policies that have made it easier to vote absentee. In Wisconsin, lawmakers are considering tightening restrictions for mail voting and early voting. Voter suppression has been given new momentum because of Trump’s allegations.
Why is this problematic? The exaggerated fear of election fraud has a lengthy history of thwarting efforts to make voting more inclusive. During the late 19th century, new immigrants, poor farmers, and wage workers flooded into the electorate. Seeing the changes, wealthy elites pressed for tighter regulation of elections such as personal voter registration systems which would significantly hamper the poor and working classes. Similar to Trump, these elites argued that fraud needed to be eliminated to protect Democracy. The same widespread perception of fraud was present in the Progressive Era. The new middle and upper classes assumed that lower classes were morally deficient and would produce unscrupulous behavior in politics. New administrative reforms privatized and personalized the social act of voting. The extraordinary high levels of voter turnout seemed to disappear with the adoption of personal voter registration systems. Many critics of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the extension of it during the Reagan Administration used the fear of fraud to argue against it. The victories of the Civil Rights Era made it more difficult to use overt means of voter suppression such as poll taxes and violence. Now, suppression takes a more subtle form and claims of election fraud have proven to be an effective form of intimidation.
The use of baseless voter fraud allegations is a political move by Republicans who are threatened by the increasingly diverse population of the U.S. The rising voting power of minorities threatens to tip the balance of power away from Republicans while bolstering the Democrat’s voting base.
Does fraud happen? Yes, our elections are not entirely fraud free, but the amount of fraud is exceedingly minute. Citizens do not need to worry about whether their vote will be counted fairly or whether a politician truly won a race. The growing belief in election fraud is dangerous because it undermines our democracy by discouraging people to turn out to vote and heightening distrust in our political system.
References
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/us/politics/republicans-voter-fraud.html