Voter Fraud

Voter fraud has been a contentious topic of discussion in the United States in recent years. Different major political factions view “voter fraud” in different ways, depending on where they land on the political spectrum. Those on the left tend to consider voter suppression more of an issue, while those on the right tend to view voter fraud as an issue.

After the Presidential Election of 2020, many reports emphasized analysis that showed that individual precincts accurately reported the correct number and outcome of votes. For many on the left, that seemed to close the issue, as did the lack of evidence of enough fraud to overturn that election. Some on the right did not accept that conclusion, not trusting the institutions that they felt had lied to them repeatedly. Others, generally on the right or lean right, felt that other types of voter fraud and other unfair voter practices that deserve serious attention were specifically ignored and socially shunned.

Perspectives from the right and lean right.

For those who don’t trust the institutions that concluded that voter fraud did not tilt the election for Biden, they refer to a long list of large scale deceit and unfair practices by these institutions. For example, calling the Hunter Biden laptop a Russian hoax without evidence and censoring that information in news media and social media was the last massive lie before election day designed to unfairly manipulate the election. 

Some major news outlets published articles describing it as a hoax or likely hoax, though without any evidence. Others chose to simply not cover the laptop story at all, sometimes internally voicing their reasons as needing to stop Trump from winning. Government and former government officials met with social media leaders and convinced them to censor or deplatform all posts and conversations about the Hunter Biden laptop – effectively removing and dramatically squelching the ability for voters to discuss and talk about this controversy. To the people who don’t trust these media and other institutions, this was a blatant suppression of the Right to Free Speech. They see it as intentional disinformation right out of the play book of authoritarian governments and anti-democracy movements, and just an example of a long series of misinformation and deceit that began before Trump ran for President that then became more intense and brazen during his administration.
 

The right is concerned by many types of voter fraud, not just the one described above. Miscounting votes at the precinct or board of elections is the type of voter fraud the left has emphasized recently, but is just one of many kinds of voter fraud.. According to the Heritage Foundation (Right bias) and others, here are some of the actions that constitute voter fraud:

• Impersonation fraud at the polls: Casting a vote in the name of other legitimate, or illegitimate voters.
• False registrations: Casting a ballot using fraudulent information (fake name/address) or claiming residence in a jurisdiction where the voter does not live and is not entitled to vote. 
• Duplicate voting: Registering & voting in more than one jurisdiction in the same election. 
• Fraudulent use of absentee ballots/ mail-in ballots: Casting an absentee ballot or other mail-in ballot without the knowledge of the actual voter and/or forging the voters signature on a ballot. 
• Buying votes: Offering any kind of payment or compensation to get someone to vote in a particular way. This includes cash payments as well as bottles of bourbon or other types of compensation or reward.
• Voter harassment / Illegal “assistance” at the polls: Providing false “assistance” to voters by intimidating or forcing them to vote for a particular candidate.
• Ineligible voting: Illegal registration and voting by individuals who are not eligible to vote. 
• Altering the vote count: “Changing the actual vote count either in a precinct or at the central location where votes are counted.”

Many of these other types of voter fraud are increasingly difficult to discover due to changes in election laws. Drop off boxes, mail-in voting and ballot harvesting make voter harassment, vote buying and fraudulent use of absentee ballots and mail-in ballots extremely hard to detect or prevent. State boards of elections that do not regularly and responsibly update their voter lists make false registrations and duplicate voting much easier.

 Huge changes in election laws nationwide occurred just before the 2020 election due to the needs of COVID as well as a well coordinated, national program run by left organizations to change those laws. Some argue those changes were explicitly made to give one party an advantage over the over, and even intentionally designed to permit an increase in undetectable election fraud.

In 2016, some on the left, including then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questioned the validity of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, mainly on the claims that Russia has interfered with the election. 

In the 2020s, the controversy surrounding voter fraud is mainly centered around mail-in voting, which has been heavily criticized by former President Donald Trump and some (but not all) members of the political right for being, in their perspective, easy to manipulate. Mail-in voting saw a massive uptick in popularity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic which coincided with the 2020 Presidential election. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states changed voting requirements. There are some on the right who claim that the sudden increase in popularity of mail in voting contributed to the 2020 election being “stolen.” Former President Donald Trump had made statements at rallies and speeches saying he would eliminate mail-in voting entirely in the past. He has recently, however, seemed to change his position on mail-in/absentee voting based on advice from Republican Party officials. 

A large part of the contention surrounding mail-in voting and absentee voting is “ballot harvesting” or “ballot collecting.” Ballot harvesting involves collecting absentee ballots from voters and delivering them to the central location where they are counted. Laws and restrictions surrounding ballot harvesting vary from state to state, with some (like California) allowing anyone to turn in a ballot from a voter with their content, while others have moderate restrictions, and some have banned ballot harvesting entirely. Many on the right view ballot harvesting as voter fraud because ballot collectors can, in some states, be partisan operatives and pressure voters into voting in a specific manner, while the left views ballot harvesting as integral to making it safe and easy for minorities like the rural, impoverished, and disabled to vote and participate in the democratic process. 

Voter fraud is a term used more often, though not exclusively, by members of the political right and is used to raise concerns over election integrity, as in-person voting is seen as more secure rather than mail-in voting. While some on the left may agree that mail-in voting is less secure than in-person voting, they say that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The question doesn’t seem to be the existence of voter fraud at all, rather the amount of voter fraud and whether or not it affected the outcome of the election. 

Many on the left think that former President Trump’s claims about voter fraud are unfounded, as evidence substantial enough to prove his claims in a court of law was never provided. There are concerns on the left that these comments from the former president may have negatively contributed to the events of January 6th. The term “voter fraud” may evoke negative emotions among members of the political left because they may view Republican arguments about it as spreading harmful misinformation and sowing distrust in our electoral system.