The retrial of former Troy, N.Y., City Councilman Michael LoPorto on ballot fraud charges has revealed detailed testimony about the casting and soliciting of absentee ballots.

LoPorto was charged with 22 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument for his role in an alleged Democratic Party attempt to steal a city council primary victory in 2009, according to the Times Union.

Robert Martiniano, a former Democratic candidate for the City Council’s second district, testified that forging absentee ballots is a tradition in local politics.

“It’s was something that was just in the culture for both major political parties,” Martiniano testified, according to the Mental Recession blog.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said voter fraud is “a problem that does not really exist.”

Slate, a left-leaning current events and culture magazine, published a May 31 report by Center for American Progress staffer Scott Keyes claiming that while that voter fraud may be “easy” to commit, “in truth, concerns about voter fraud usually stem from other conservative fears.”

The debate about voter fraud and what to do if it exists has reached final arguments in a court case pitting the state of Texas against the Department of Justice. The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter I.D. law in 2008; thirty-two states in total have such a law on the books.