Is voter fraud a problem in the US?

Your question touches a lot of recent data — I'll pull the latest research on how often voter fraud happens in the US.

No - according to most academic research, government investigations, and counts of proven cases, voter fraud exists but is not a widespread problem at a scale that would affect outcomes of major U.S. elections.

What the evidence shows

1. Documented rates are extremely low:

Research examining multiple elections has consistently found documented voter fraud to be rare , and that "proven voter fraud is extremely rare relative to the number of votes cast" .

The most cited estimate comes from the Brennan Center for Justice's review of elections that had been meticulously studied for fraud:

> found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent

The same report noted it is more likely an American "will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls."

Other studies point in the same direction:

The Brennan Center’s review of meticulously studied elections found incident rates between roughly 0.0003% and 0.0025% — orders of magnitude below what would be needed to “rig” statewide outcomes.

2. Government investigations agree it is rare:

Courts have reached similar conclusions, noting for example “only two convictions for in-person voter impersonation fraud out of 20 million votes cast in the decade” before Texas passed its voter ID law, and that North Carolina "failed to identify even a single individual who has ever been charged with committing in-person voter fraud in North Carolina".

3. Proven cases exist, but number is small relative to vote totals:

The Heritage Foundation's Election Fraud Database is the most-cited public compilation and it lists roughly 1,561 "proven instances" yielding about 1,325 convictions across its time window.

As of its last update in December 2025, the database cataloged 1,620 proven instances of fraud, with 1,382 resulting in criminal convictions.

Analyses of that same database emphasize scale:

Bottom line

> There is no evidence for widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections, including in recent national elections.

Researchers conclude "voter fraud is not a significant problem in the country" and "not a significant concern", and that election and voter fraud occur only rarely, and there is no evidence that they are currently widespread enough to undermine U.S. election results.

That does not mean fraud never happens — the record shows isolated cases of absentee ballot fraud, duplicate voting, ineligible voting, vote-buying, and other categories documented in state prosecutions. Analysts generally describe those as justification for "targeted enforcement and administrative fixes" and for continuing to strengthen election security, while basing policy "upon demonstrated risks and evidence rather than unsupported claims."