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Crimes such as voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence or casting someone else’ ballot can be punished with hefty fines and imprisonment. Non-US citizens who break election laws can be deported
The US election system is designed with several layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way of those who feel motivated to cheat. (Getty Images)
Many Americans have mentioned in several polls conducted ahead of the voting day that they fear about voter fraud in this year’s presidential election. Much of this concern emanates from the fact that former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have time and again questioned the legitimacy of the US elections.
But voter fraud in the US is a rare occurrence. And when it happens, it also gets caught and prosecuted.
US elections are decentralised, with thousands of independent voting jurisdictions. That makes it virtually impossible to pull off a large-scale vote-rigging operation that could tip a presidential race — or most any other race.
“Research has been consistent over time that voter fraud is infinitesimally rare and almost never occurs on a scale that would affect an election outcome,” said Alice Clapman, senior counsel for voting rights at the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voter access, quoted by NPR.
Why Voter Fraud Does Not Take Place In The US?
Crimes such as voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence or casting someone else’ ballot can be punished with hefty fines and imprisonment. Non-US citizens who break election laws can be deported.
The US election system is designed with several layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way of those who feel motivated to cheat.
People who try to vote in the name of a recently deceased friend or family member can be caught when election officials update voter lists with death records and obituaries, said Gail Pellerin, a Democratic in the California Assembly who ran elections in Santa Cruz County for more than 27 years, as mentioned by an Associated Press report.
Those who try to impersonate someone else run the risk that someone at the polls knows that person or that the person will later try to cast their own ballot, she added.
Have There Been Any Rare Occurrence?
In Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose had said in 2022 that his office had found 75 voters who allegedly cast a ballot in the state and another state in 2020. Almost 6 million ballots were cast in Ohio that year.
LaRose’s office stated they had referred a total of 630 cases to prosecutors “over the course of multiple elections” — while also noting “voter fraud continues to be exceedingly rare” in the state, as per NPR.
After the 2020 election, The Associated Press contacted local election officials in six swing states. In their analysis, they found 475 potential voter fraud cases — which amounts to an extraordinarily small percentage of the more than 25 million ballots that were cast in those six states.
What is a Voting Mistake?
A voter fraud and voting mistake are two different occurrences. A voting mistake involves an ineligible voter who voted “accidentally in good faith, believing that they were eligible”.
In Florida, where 20 formerly jailed persons were arrested for alleged illegal voting, even though they were given voter registration cards. In Texas, a prominent case involving a woman named Crystal Mason said she thought she was eligible to vote in 2016.
After the 2020 election, social media surged with claims of dead people casting ballots, double voting or destroyed piles of ballots on the side of the road.
Former President Donald Trump promoted and has continued to amplify these claims. But the vast majority of them were found to be untrue.
Former election officials say that even more often, allegations of voter fraud turn out to result from a clerical error or a misunderstanding, as per The Associated Press.
How Systems Prevent Someone From Voting Illegally?
States have a series of mechanisms to identify people who are ineligible to vote before they could cast a ballot.
As per an NPR report, states by law are required to routinely remove ineligible or deceased voters from their rolls. And tools like the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC, help states share voter data.
There are also a host of protections that would keep someone from committing a voter fraud. That includes signature matching, drop box surveillance, as well as poll worker training.
(with inputs from Associated Press)
