Each US citizen is limited to one vote. This concept is a bedrock of American democracy. But what if others are voting more than once? Or maybe votes are counted from people that don’t even exist? In recent years, voter fraud and election security have become a part of the national political discussion and even resulted in new laws such as Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021. 

But how concerned should you be? Does your vote still really count? 

Yep, Fraud Happens

There’s no doubt that election fraud happens. In fact, voter fraud has a long, sometimes violent history in the United States. 

Stories of fraudulent voting in the 19th century abound. One particularly unusual version, called “cooping”, involved gangs of men kidnapping and drugging people, before forcing them to vote, often many times, in a cartoonish sequence of costume changes and wobbly knees. Some argue this even claimed the life of Edgar Allen Poe). 

More recently, an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, found at least 1,264 cases of election fraud have resulted in criminal prosecutions within the last few decades.

But should centuries-old stories have us worried? And do the recent cases of fraud have an impact on elections? 

Modern Election Reforms

The good news is that elections have changed dramatically since the 1800s. 

Once a public act susceptible to pressure or bribery, the right to a secret ballot became law in 1890. Poll watchers now ensure voting centers are free of outside interference. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 generated sweeping reforms which improved voting equipment, information, databases, identification and compliance. 

What the Studies Say

And while isolated cases of fraud do still happen, research by the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal nonprofit public policy institute, found incident rates of fraud between 0.0003% and 0.0025%, concluding “it is more likely that an American will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”

An analysis of the 2020 election published in PNAS, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, approached the question of voter fraud from a statistical perspective, finding no evidence of anomalous results. 

And in Georgia, where Fulton County election workers were accused of manipulating the vote, the Republican-led State Election Board cleared them of conspiracy charges. 

Your Vote is Safe

The truth is that no system is perfect. Isolated mistakes, miscalculations, and even fraud do occasionally happen. But the American election system is rigorously-tested, efficiently-run, and highly transparent. There is no reason to believe that voter fraud has changed the outcome of any election. Your vote is safe. 

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About WeVote: 

WeVote is a 100% volunteer-driven non-profit with a mission to build the next generation of voting tech so voters at a hyper-local level can be informed on the issues they care about, curated by people they trust. By connecting neighbor with neighbor and friend with friend, we help voters cut through the clutter to understand what’s on their ballot. The open platform lets anybody create and share voter guides that aggregate information and opinions across networks so you can help others become better voters too. Vote red, vote blue, vote rainbows, we don’t care – we just want you to vote and that’s why we’re here.