Is voter fraud a problem in the US?

Based on decades of research across academic studies, government audits, and court cases, voter fraud is extremely rare in the United States, though it does occur in isolated instances and remains a politically contentious topic.

What the research shows

Scale of the problem: Multiple independent studies across different methodologies arrive at similar conclusions. A comprehensive Brennan Center review found that most reported incidents of voter fraud are actually traceable to other sources, such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices, and reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud, finding incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. The report concluded it is more likely an American "will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls."

A 2024 Brookings Institution analysis of the Heritage Foundation's own election fraud database—compiled by a conservative think tank—reached similar conclusions. In Arizona, around 42.6 million votes were cast with only 36 cases of fraud in total over 25 years. In Pennsylvania, across 30 years and 32 elections, just 39 cases of voter fraud were identified—0.000039 percent of the more than 100 million ballots cast.

Specific fraud types:

Expert consensus: As one political scientist summarized, there are a few cases of election fraud in every campaign, but it's not systemic, not widespread, generally not organized, and has likely never affected an actual outcome, though people often turn isolated cases into a perceived systemic pattern. Academic research spanning two decades has concluded that there is no evidence of significant election fraud in contemporary American national elections.

The gap between data and public perception

Despite this evidence, public belief in widespread fraud remains significant and politically polarized. A Pew Research Center survey found that 54% of Republicans believe voter fraud is a major problem in U.S. elections, compared to 6% of Democrats. This perception gap exists even though judges—both Republican and Democratic appointees, including those appointed by Donald Trump—who heard cases and reviewed evidence reached the conclusion there was not widespread ballot fraud.

Bottom line

Voter fraud does occur, but overwhelming evidence from courts, government audits, and nonpartisan/bipartisan academic research indicates it happens at a vanishingly small scale—typically a handful of cases per million or tens of millions of ballots cast—and has not been shown to alter election outcomes. The debate over voter fraud is thus less about documented evidence and more about disputes over election security policy, voter ID laws, and the appropriate scope of safeguards relative to the actual (very low) risk.