

Even as Pennsylvania became the latest state to uphold a restrictive voter ID law, a News21 analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 shows that while fraud has occurred, the rate is infinitesimal, and in-person voter impersonation on Election Day is virtually non-existent. News21 is a Carnegie-Knight project featuring journalism students from across the United States.

In an exhaustive public records search, News21 reporters sent thousands of requests to elections officers in all 50 states, asking for every case of fraudulent activity, including registration fraud, absentee ballot fraud, vote buying, false election counts, campaign fraud, casting an ineligible vote, voting twice, voter impersonation fraud and intimidation.

Analysis of the resulting comprehensive News21 election fraud database turned up 10 cases of voter impersonation. With 146 million registered voters in the United States during that time, those 10 cases represent one out of about every 15 million prospective voters.

CORBIN CARSON, corbin.carson at news21.com, votingrights.news21.com/

Corbin Carson is a student in the master’s program at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. As a part of News21, Corbin led the team investigating voter fraud across the country. He said today: “We built this database to shed light on the highly partisan national debate regarding whether voter fraud is affecting elections, and whether it would be prevented by new voter ID laws.”