Is voter fraud a problem in the US?

Short answer: Voter fraud exists but at extremely low rates, not at a scale that affects election outcomes

The research consensus from election experts, academics, and nonpartisan/government watchdogs is that voter fraud occurs, but is rare — far too rare to meaningfully influence election results, even as it remains a politically charged and widely debated topic.

What the data shows

Multiple independent studies spanning decades have reached similar conclusions:

2020 election specifically

Despite extensive claims of fraud following the 2020 election, a count by the Associated Press of voter fraud cases in the six battleground states in 2020 that were disputed by Donald Trump found fewer than 475 votes in all six states combined—less than two-tenths of one percent of Biden's margin of victory in those states. Senior officials in the Trump administration, including Attorney General Bill Barr and chief cybersecurity official Chris Krebs, also confirmed no significant fraud was found.

Recent developments (2024-2026)

The issue remains politically active. The Justice Department has charged legal permanent residents — who have legal status but did not reach full citizenship — with illegally voting, with fifteen charged with voting in the 2024 presidential election and one for 2022. Since September, the Justice Department has charged new cases at a rate of more than one per day, compared to just 13 cases over the Biden administration's full four-year term. This reflects a policy shift toward more aggressive prosecution, though it doesn't by itself indicate a change in the underlying rate of fraud.

A notable gap: perception vs. reality

There's a striking disconnect between public belief and documented evidence: this issue has been raised so often that roughly 1 in 4 Americans believes that voter fraud is a real problem. Separately, survey research from 2024 found that substantial proportions of U.S. registered voters believe that these types of election fraud are common, even though academic and government studies consistently find otherwise.

Bottom line

Individual, isolated cases of fraud do occur and are prosecuted, but no credible large-scale study has found evidence of fraud at a level that could swing a statewide or national election. The debate largely center on policy responses (e.g., voter ID laws, mail-ballot rules) rather than on the empirical data itself, where there's unusually strong cross-partisan agreement among researchers.