Resources on Voter Fraud

The last 24 hours have seen voter fraud back in the news more than three months after Election Day.  There are lots of reports and talking heads out there – including our own David Becker on AC360 – so below I’ve compiled a list of some nonpartisan reports on voter fraud, as well as other reliable resources in the field that can help you sort through the noise.  This is not an exhaustive list, so if you think something is missing, let me know.

• The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient – This 2012 report has been cited as evidence of fraud by the White House and others, though the report makes no claims about fraud.  The report details inefficiencies in voter registration systems and the challenges faced by state and local election officials in keeping voter registration lists current given the high rates of mobility among the United States’ population.
• “A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast” by Justin Levitt – Professor Levitt found 31 possible incidents of voter fraud out of the more than 1 billion ballots cast since the year 2000.
• “All This Talk of Voter Fraud? Across U.S., Officials Found Next to None” by Michael Wines – Wines looked at allegations of voter fraud across the country in the November 2016 election and found no evidence of widespread malfeasance.
• “In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud” by Eric Lipton and Ian Urbina – Lipton and Urbina analyzed voter fraud efforts made by the Department of Justice under the George W. Bush administration and found that there was “virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections.”
• “Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration” – Although not specifically on voter fraud, the 2013 report of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration details recommendations aimed at making the election process more secure and more convenient for election officials and voters.  Among the recommendations are online voter registration to make it easier for voters to keep their registration records up-to-date and data-sharing efforts such as the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to help states maintain their voter registration lists.

Election resources:

• The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) (@EACgov)
• The EAC’s list of social media sites for state and local election officials
• The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) (@NASSorg)
• Rick Hasen’s Election Law Blog (@RickHasen)
• Electionline.org (@Electionline)
• ProPublica (@ProPublica)
  • Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman)
  • Scott Klein (@Kleinmatic)
• Pam Fessler of National Public Radio (@PamFessler)