The Truth about "Voter Fraud"

From 2002 to 2007, when the Bush administration ordered its U.S. attorney generals in every state to look for and prosecute cases of voter fraud, only 120 people had been charged nationwide, with just 86 convictions, out of the 300 million votes cast.

Many of those cases involved errors, not deliberate fraud, by people “who appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show,” the New York Times reported in 2007.

Claims about double-voting are grossly exaggerated. In New Jersey, claims by both parties suggested that 4,397 people voted twice in the 2004 elections. Brennan Center analysis found that name, birth date and other data errors accounted for virtually all the alleged fraud. Only eight cases were substantiated, out of 3.6 million votes cast.

In Missouri, allegations of fraud were rampant after the 2000 election, but Brennan’s investigation found only six actual cases out of 2.36 million votes cast.

In Wisconsin, the third state Brennan examined, the extent of voter fraud in 2004 was seven illegal votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

In Texas, state Attorney General Greg Abbott spent $1.4 million on a two-year crusade to crack down on fraud in pursuit of a voter ID law. The probe yielded 26 cases, only eight of which were fraud. In the others, Abbott charged 18 volunteers, mostly senior citizens, who helped homebound neighbors by mailing their sealed ballots. Their crime? Not signing the envelopes.

Brennan Center researchers stress that requiring photo ID at the polls wouldn’t have made a difference in any of the tiny handful of fraud cases it substantiated for the 2007 report, “The Truth About Voter Fraud.”

“Photo ID laws are effective only in preventing individuals from impersonating other voters — an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning,” the report states. “The voter fraud phantom drives policy that disenfranchises actual, legitimate voters.”

Go to the Brennan Center’s Truth About Fraud website, www.truthaboutfraud.org, for many resources on voter fraud allegations and facts.