Yet Again: No Evidence of Voter Fraud

Via the NYT:  All This Talk of Voter Fraud? Across U.S., Officials Found Next to None

After all the allegations of rampant voter fraud and claims that millions had voted illegally, the people who supervised the general election last month in states around the nation have been adding up how many credible reports of fraud they actually received. The overwhelming consensus: next to none.

In an election in which more than 137.7 million Americans cast ballots, election and law enforcement officials in 26 states and the District of Columbia — Democratic-leaning, Republican-leaning and in-between — said that so far they knew of no credible allegations of fraudulent voting. Officials in another eight states said they knew of only one allegation.

A few states reported somewhat larger numbers of fraud claims that were under review. Tennessee counted 40 credible allegations out of some 4.3 million primary and general election votes. In Georgia, where more than 4.1 million ballots were cast, officials said they had opened 25 inquiries into “suspicious voting or election-related activity.”

But inquiries to all 50 states (every one but Kansas responded) found no states that reported indications of widespread fraud. And while additional allegations could surface as states wind up postelection reviews, their conclusions are unlikely to change significantly.

Same as it ever was, and yet far too many will not be dissuaded from their evidence-free certainty that the US has a massive voter-fraud problem.

And it should be remembered:

“The old notion that somehow there are all these impostors out there, people not eligible to vote that are voting — it’s a lie,” said Thomas E. Mann, a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “But it’s what’s being used in the states now to impose increased qualifications and restrictions on voting.”

Let the record reflect that I support the notion of voter IDs as long as they are free, universal, and extremely easy to obtain for all citizens (this probably requires having a national ID card of some type).  Until such a time as we go that route, the current system is sufficiently secure and efforts to curtail voters from voting should be opposed.

FILED UNDER: 2016 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    “The old notion that somehow there are all these impostors out there, people not eligible to vote that are voting — it’s a lie,”

    And who is it that repeats this lie?

    Let the record reflect that I support the notion of voter IDs as long as they are free, universal, and extremely easy to obtain for all citizens (this probably requires having a national ID card of some type).

    But Steven, that would defeat the whole purpose of voter IDs.

  2. al-Ameda says:

    “The old notion that somehow there are all these impostors out there, people not eligible to vote that are voting — it’s a lie,” said Thomas E. Mann, a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “But it’s what’s being used in the states now to impose increased qualifications and restrictions on voting.”

    And yet the greaseball-elect said that if you account for the millions of illegal votes cast he actually won the popular vote.

    Republicans live in a fact-free propaganda-rich environment.

  3. SKI says:

    But inquiries to all 50 states (every one but Kansas responded)
    Hmmm, I wonder why Kansas didn't respond...

    Oh yeah, that's right, their Secretary of State is Kris Kobach - one of the leading perpetrators of the lie that voter fraud exists...

  4. SKI says:

    But inquiries to all 50 states (every one but Kansas responded)
    Hmmm, I wonder why Kansas didn't respond...

    Oh yeah, that's right, their Secretary of State is Kris Kobach - one of the leading perpetrators of the lie that voter fraud exists...

  5. Liberal Capitalist says:

    Sadly, this will have absolutely no impact on morons who think that the popular election was won by Donald Trump… except for 2 million cases of Voter Fraud.

    Here’s to an entertaining 4 years of these morons losing their safty net.

  6. DrDaveT says:

    @al-Ameda:

    Republicans live thrive in a fact-free propaganda-rich environment.

    FTFY