Introduction

Shortly after George W. Bush took office in 2001, his administration launched a concerted effort to crack down on a supposed epidemic of voter fraud in the United States. The campaign to identify and eliminate such fraud became such a priority that escalating political pressure from the White House eventually drove the Justice Department to fire U.S. attorneys who were seen as weak on prosecuting cases of fraud, in a politically-charged purge. State legislatures across the country also embarked on a zealous mission to fight the problem of “voter fraud,” while right-wing pundits and advocacy groups made it their goal to expose and defeat the so-called voter fraud epidemic. Claims that corrupt organizations, illegal immigrants and political machines were stealing elections away from voters became common refrains in the right-wing media and political debates. But the Bush Justice Department’s war on voter fraud found little evidence of the illegal voting it alleged. Between 2002 and 2006, the DOJ’s efforts resulted in only 86 convictions out of nearly 200 million votes cast, a rate of 0.0000004%. Unfazed by the complete lack of proof that widespread voter fraud exists, right-wing politicians, media personalities, activists and think tanks have continued their attacks on voting rights in the name of “voter integrity,” “ballot security” and “fighting voter fraud.” The resulting policies present a massive threat to citizens’ right to vote, which is at the very foundation of our democracy.

Is There Widespread Voter Fraud?

While open to a variety of interpretations, the term “voter fraud” usually refers to voting without registration, registering nonexistent voters, voting more than once, voting in places where one is ineligible to vote, manipulating or rigging the vote count, or buying votes. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law has found that the most common causes of voting irregularities include clerical mistakes, transcription blunders and computer errors, such as mistakes in poll books or in voter registration documents. Personal information listed on voter rolls may be out of date, incomplete, or include typos. In 2005, the Brennan Center looked at a list of purportedly fraudulent voter registrations in New Jersey and found that most of the suspected cases of ”double-voting” ended up being matching errors, where two people with identical or similar names were thought to be one person voting twice. A New York Times analysis of federal voting fraud cases found that roughly a third of the 86 convictions from 2002 through 2006 involved small vote-buying schemes in local elections. Nearly all the others were the result of honest mistakes by those who didn’t know they were ineligible to vote or instances of individuals acting alone. Ultimately, as the Times reported, prosecutors and election experts agreed that evidence of large-scale or coordinated fraud just wasn’t there. In 2010, Tova Andrea Wang, a senior fellow at the think tank Demos, wrote, “Law enforcement statistics, reports from elections officials and widespread research have proved that voter fraud at the polling place is virtually non-existent.” Lorraine Minnite, an elections expert at Barnard College, argues that there is “no threat” of voter fraud, with official statistics showing that from “2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty people were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five people were found guilty of voting more than once.” In Minnesota, which has been at the center of the Right’s search for voter fraud, a report by Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota found that a grand total of 26 people were convicted of voter fraud in 2008 — all because they were felons who mistakenly voted. In other words, “nine ten-thousandths of one percent (0.0009%) of 2008 voters were convicted of fraud” in Minnesota. Nonetheless, the Republicans who control both houses of the state legislature are pushing a voter ID bill that would disenfranchise tens of thousands of Minnesotans: the Star Tribunefound that approximately “144,000 eligible voters in Minnesota lack a valid, state-issued identification card.”

The Voter Fraud Myth's Partisan Program

There is a reason the Right Wing has been so eager to invent the mythical problem of voter fraud and then offer gratuitous “solutions”: to disenfranchise the voters least likely to back conservative politicians. The abundance of new “anti-voter fraud” laws currently working their way through state legislatures attempt to drive down turnout among young and low-income voters who tend to live in cities, particularly African Americans and Latinos, all groups more likely to vote for Democrats. Frequently these laws require or request that poll workers ask voters to show photo identification. Although these laws are often presented as simple anti-fraud measures, some prominent backers have made it clear that they are in fact intended to prevent those who are less likely to have government IDs from voting. For example, the Republican speaker of New Hampshire’s House told a tea party group this year that the photo ID bill he championed targeted “foolish” young people because “voting as a liberal” is “what kids do.” The chief sponsor of Georgia’s voter ID legislation told the Justice Department that “if there are fewer black voters because of this bill, it will only be because there is less opportunity for fraud.” Laws meant to address “voter fraud” may be tackling a fictitious problem, but they have real consequences. A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined why an estimated 23.2 million registered voters did not cast ballots in 2008. Researchers estimated that nine percent (2.2 million) of these did not cast ballots because they lacked proper ID. Eight percent were unable to find their polling place. Eleven percent were turned away because of long lines. Another nine percent were turned away from the polls because of registration problems. The study reported that African American and Hispanic voters were more frequently asked to provide photo IDs in states that required them: “African Americans and Hispanics were asked to show ‘picture ID’ more often than Whites — 70% for African Americans, 65% for Hispanics, and 51% for Whites.” The researchers also found that “it is the youngest voters who are more likely to lack the necessary identification. For instance, of those 30 years of age and younger, 64% said they had an unexpired driver’s license with their legal name and current address.” Like younger voters, black and Hispanic citizens are less likely than whites to have the identification required by voter ID laws. The Brennan Center reports that while eight percent of voting age white citizens don’t have a current, government-issued photo ID, the number jumps to 16 percent for Hispanics and 25 percent for African Americans. In addition, those earning less than $35,000 per year are more than twice as likely to lack proper ID as those with higher incomes. According to a University of Washington study, “[I]ndividuals who are racial and ethnic minorities, foreign-born, of a lower socioeconomic status, and are younger all are less likely to have a driver’s license,” which is “the primary valid form of identification accepted for voting purposes.” “Strict voter ID regulations would eliminate more Democratic than Republican votes from the final tally,” the researchers found, noting that in “jurisdictions with competitive elections and close outcomes, this could easily change the final vote results in favor of Republican candidates.” As Professor Minnite explains in her book The Myth of Voter Fraud, arguments that America is facing a voter fraud epidemic allow politicians not only to enact new laws suppressing the vote, but to “justify voter-challenge campaigns that can lead to voter intimidation.” Minnite writes that minorities who throughout American history have experienced the most disenfranchisement and discrimination are particularly targeted by such campaigns: Classes of voters such as African Americans, Latinos, and new immigrants once on the margins of the U.S. electorate, voters who have struggled for inclusion and a political voice, are cast to suspicion by voter fraud allegations that suggest their votes are “illegal” or that they are prone to subvert the rules—in other words, cheat—to overcome their minority status in a majoritarian system. Thus, voter fraud allegations that taint the votes of these groups are useful to politicians engaged in politics by other means. As voter suppression laws have clear partisan implications, is it any wonder that Republican politicians and conservative activists have been the chief champions of such burdensome laws? Accusations of voter fraud have real consequences, encouraging voter suppression by means of burdensome new laws and increased voter intimidation. Minnite writes, “Over time, unfounded fraud allegations influence voting policy by shaping voting rules and procedures in a way that inhibit the democracy-expanding potential of voting rights movements.” According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than five million eligible voters will face prohibitive barriers to voting in the next election as a result of new laws passed to purportedly crackdown on “voter fraud.”

Voter Suppression Strategies

Who's Behind the Attacks on Voting Rights?

Why Is the Voter Fraud Myth So Widespread?

A startling number of Republican voters believe that voter fraud is the reason President Obama won the 2008 presidential election. Public Policy Polling found one year after the presidential election that 52% of Republicans, and 26% of all Americans, “think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year.” Only 27 percent of Republican voters believed that the president had been elected legitimately. Accusations that ACORN propagated systematic voter fraud throughout the country by helping minority voters in cities vote illegally en masse helped conservative activists fan the flames of racial resentment while perpetuating the myth of widespread voter fraud. Undocumented immigrants are another frequent target of voter fraud accusations, with Tea Party and anti-immigrant groups often alleging that the Democratic Party is working to help undocumented immigrants vote illegally. In Arizona last year, Republican congressional candidate Jesse Kelly said that Democrats were “busing” in Mexicans to illegally vote for his opponent Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly claimed to have video to corroborate his charges but never released it. Election officials said they had no records of undocumented immigrants voting. William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC told Fox News that “the Obama administration is doing everything it can to make sure as many illegal aliens vote in 2010 although that is a violation of federal law.” One Arizona anti-immigrant group sent out an email before the election warning that undocumented immigrants were on the verge of “stealing the election”: “Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was also the target of voter-fraud allegations in 2010. The campaign of Reid’s Republican opponent Sharron Angle warned, “Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can’t win it outright.” Following Reid’s narrow victory, one right-wing group alleged that the SEIU stole the election for the Democrat because union technicians worked as the repairmen for the voting machines. Other Democrats famously, and falsely, accused of winning elections as a result of voter fraud include Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who won close races in 2004 and 2008, respectively. In 2005, a Washington court rebuffed Gregoire’s Republican opponent’s claims of voter fraud. The Seattle Times reported that the judge “saw no evidence of fraud.” In Minnesota, the Supreme Court wrote in its decision affirming Franken’s victory that neither Franken nor his opponent claimed voter fraud took place and “found no allegations or evidence of fraud or foul play and no evidence to suggest that the Election Day totals from the precinct are unreliable.” However, the GOP and right-wing commentators continue to state as a matter of course that these Democrats were elected as a result of fraud. The conservative media also continues to push the myth that Republicans lost those races, among others, as a result of voter fraud. Before the 2010 election, Fox News host Megyn Kelly cited unnamed reports of “voter fraud on a massive scale with the intention of keeping Democrats in office.” Fox News even set up a voter fraud tip line, [email protected] Among the complaints of wrongdoing Fox reported: The buttons for each party are so close together, that if a person tries to press the Republican button with the pad of their finger, it is possible that their fingernail might accidently press the Democratic button. Not surprisingly, the claim of massive voter fraud diminished after Republicans made significant gains in congressional, gubernatorial and legislative elections in 2010. But that did not prevent newly elected Republican legislators and governors from moving the flood of voter suppression measures we’ve seen post-2010, masquerading as efforts to combat the mythical scourge of “voter fraud.”

Conclusion