States are trying to calm fears about rare cases of voter fraud

(TNND) — State and local officials are working hard to assure Americans that we will see free and fair elections that are free of fraud.

Fears of fraud have arisen in several states, including battleground states Michigan and Pennsylvania.

A non-citizen was charged after allegedly casting a vote last weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said in a joint statement that “non-nocitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event.”

But they continued: “If it does happen, we will take it extremely seriously. Our elections are secure and Michigan state and local election officials are closely following the law.”

York County, Pennsylvania, election officials do sifting through several thousand voter registration applications to make sure they are legit.

Former President Donald Trump has expressed concerns about voter registration forms in York County.

“Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, has received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications from a third party,” reads a social media post from Trump. “This is in addition to Lancaster County being caught with 2,600 counterfeit ballots and forms, all written by the same person. Really bad ‘stuff’. WHAT HAPPENED IN PENNSYLVANIA???

Election officials in York County said they received a batch of 3,087 voter registration applications last week.

Staff have verified and approved about half of the applications as legitimate, county officials said Wednesday.

About 30% of the applications turned out to contain incomplete information. Approval of these applications is pending additional information from applicants.

About a quarter of the applications were rejected and are further assessed by the local prosecutor. Of the rejected applications, 85% concern duplicate registration requests.

Virginia purged about 1,600 voters from the electoral rolls, who it believes are non-citizens.

Non-citizens, including permanent legal residents, are not allowed to vote in federal, state and most local elections.

Two states, Connecticut and Delaware, allow non-resident voting in municipal elections National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ten states allow nonresident voting in certain special district elections: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, and Wyoming.

Illegal voting by non-citizens is rare, and a Expert from the Cato Institute wrote in 2020 that the evidence does not support the fear that non-citizens vote enough to actually change the outcome of elections.

Voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare.

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, analyzed an election fraud database from the conservative Heritage Foundation.

She told her Analysis showed there was a “minuscule” amount of voter fraud in the US

That’s what she wrote, for example Heritage’s tracker for the swing state of Pennsylvania goes back 30 years, covers 32 elections with more than 100 million votes cast, and has found only 39 cases of voter fraud.

The fraudulent voting rate over the three decades in Pennsylvania was 0.0000388%.

The presidential race will come down to what happens seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And Brookings’ breakdown shows small percentages of fraudulent votes in years of tracking for all seven swing states (voting figures rounded):

Arizona: 26 reported cases of fraud over 25 years among 43 million ballots cast

Georgia: 23 reported cases of fraud over 27 years among 65 million ballots cast

Michigan: 19 reported cases of fraud over 17 years among 65 million ballots cast

Nevada: eight reported cases of fraud over a thirteen-year period among 9 million ballots cast

North Carolina: 58 reported cases of fraud over 38 years among 82 million ballots cast

Pennsylvania: 39 reported cases of fraud over 30 years among 101 million ballots cast

Wisconsin: 69 reported cases of fraud over 20 years among 45 million ballots cast

Georgia has controlled the 2022 elections and found that over the past 25 years, fewer than 1,700 people, believed to be non-citizens, tried to register to vote, and none were able to vote.

Most Americans are confident that these elections will be well-run, but the stakes are significant partisan gap in trust levelsaccording to the Pew Research Center.

A survey found that 73% of voters and 90% of Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters expect the election to be well-run.

But only 57% of Trump supporters feel the same way.

The survey also shows that Harris supporters are more confident than Trump supporters that it will be clear who won after all the votes are counted (85% vs. 58%), and they are more confident have mail-in ballots counted as voters intended (85%). % vs. 38%), are more confident that our elections will be secure from hacking (73% vs. 32%), and that ineligible voters will be prevented from casting their ballots (87% vs. 30%).

Are Trump supporters too distrustful, or are Harris supporters too trusting?

“Trump supporters are too distrustful,” Todd Belt, political management program director at George Washington University, told The National News Desk last week. “And the reason I say that is because there is incredibly little actual electoral malfeasance happening. It’s just a few voices here and there, and usually they find the person who did it. There are no really major problems with the counting processes. These are done under the supervision of both parties, and you can have a lot of confidence in the election process.”

Belt said that about Trump rhetoric of stolen elections has influenced Republican attitudes.

Election laws, of course, vary by state.

Thirty-six states have done so laws requiring voters to show some form of identification at the ballot box, according to the NCSL.

The remaining fourteen states and Washington DC use other methods to verify voters’ identities, the NCSL says.

Below are the ID laws for in-person voting in the swing states, according to the NCSL.

Arizona: Strict ID without photo. If no ID is shown, the voter will vote on a provisional ballot and must return within five days to show ID.

Georgia: Strict photo ID. If no ID is shown, the voter will vote on a provisional ballot and must return within three days to show ID.

Michigan: Photo ID requested. If no ID is presented, the voter signs an affidavit and votes on a regular ballot.

Nevada: No document is required to vote.

North Carolina: Strict photo ID. If no ID is presented, the voter will vote on a provisional ballot and must return to show ID before the close of business on the day before the election.

Pennsylvania: A strict voter ID law was enacted in 2012, but it is not in effect because the Supreme Court struck it down.

Wisconsin: Strict photo ID.

States have introduced other laws to prevent voter fraud.

At least 35 states have statutes prohibiting this tampering with voting systemsaccording to the NCSL.

Double vote is often listed as a crime, and 19 states explicitly prohibit voting in more than one state.

Eight states ban voting twice within the state or for the same office, the NCSL says.

And 35 states and Washington DC ban voting twice in the same election.

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Grayce McCormick of the National News Desk contributed to this report.