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GPT-5Sep 7, 2026openai/gpt-5-2025-08-07
Is voter fraud a problem in the US?
No
Short answer: It happens, but it’s rare and seldom affects outcomes of major U.S. elections.
Key points:
•Scale: Multiple academic studies, state audits, and court cases find extremely low rates of fraudulent voting. For example, a review by law professor Justin Levitt found 31 credible cases of in‑person voter impersonation out of more than a billion ballots cast (2000–2014). An Associated Press review of six 2020 battleground states identified a few hundred potential cases among about 25 million votes—fractions of a percent.
•2020 election: The Department of Justice under Attorney General William Barr reported no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have changed the result. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called 2020 “the most secure in American history,” and more than 60 post‑election lawsuits failed to show widespread fraud.
•It’s not zero: There have been real cases—typically small and often caught—such as the 2018 North Carolina 9th District absentee-ballot scheme (which triggered a new election) and some local races involving mail-ballot abuse. These are notable but uncommon.
•Common confusions: Administrative errors, outdated voter rolls, and reporting glitches are more common than intentional fraud and are usually resolved during canvassing and audits.
•Safeguards: Bipartisan poll workers, voter registration checks, signature/ID verification (varies by state), ballot tracking, chain-of-custody rules, and post‑election audits (including risk‑limiting audits) help detect and deter fraud, which carries serious criminal penalties.
If you want data for a specific state or election year, I can pull the most relevant audits, court findings, and verified case counts.