States are working to calm fears of rare cases of voter fraud

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

Fraud concerns have been raised in several states, including battleground states Michigan and Pennsylvania.

A non-citizen was accused after allegedly voting last weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County District Attorney Eli Savit said in a joint statement that “Non-citizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event.”

But, they continued, “When it happens, we take it extremely seriously. Our elections are safe, and state and local election officials in Michigan are scrupulously following the law.”

York County, Pennsylvania, election officials are sifting through several thousand voter registration applications to ensure they are legitimate.

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

“Wow! York County, Pennsylvania has received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-in Vote Requests from a third party group,” one Trump social media post read. “This is in addition the fact that Lancaster County was caught with 2,600 fake ballots and forms all written by the same person.WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA???Law enforcement needs to do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!”

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

Staff vetted about half of the requests as legitimate and approved them, county officials said Wednesday.

About 30% of applications were found to have incomplete information. Approval of these applications is pending further information from the applicants.

About a quarter of the claims were rejected and are subject to further review by the local prosecutor. Of the rejected applications, 85% are duplicate registration applications.

Virginia purged about 1,600 voters on its lists, whom it considers non-citizens.

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

Two states, Connecticut and Delaware, allow nonresidents to vote in municipal or city elections, respectively 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 Cato Institute expert wrote in 2020, that the evidence does not support the fear that non-citizens vote enough to actually change the outcome of the election.

Voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare.

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

She said it the analysis found a “tiny” amount of voter fraud in the USA

For example, she wrote this The Heritage Tracker for the swing state of Pennsylvania dates back 30 years, covers 32 elections with more than 100 million votes cast, and found only 39 cases of voter fraud.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nevada: eight cases of fraud reported over 13 years out of 9 million ballots cast

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

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

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

Georgia audited its 2022 elections and it was found that in the past 25 years, fewer than 1,700 people believed to be noncitizens tried to register to vote, and none were able to vote.

Most Americans trust that this election will be well managed, but there is a considerable number partisan gap in trust levelaccording to the Pew Research Center.

A poll found that 73 percent of voters overall and 90 percent of Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters expect the election to be well managed.

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

The poll also found 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%), are more confident that mail-in ballots will be counted as voters intend (85). % vs. 38%), are more confident that our elections are protected from hacking (73% vs. 32%) and that ineligible voters will be prevented from voting (87% vs. 30%).

Are Trump supporters too distrustful or Harris supporters too trusting?

“Trump supporters are too distrustful,” Todd Belt, director of the political management program 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 going on. It’s just a few votes here and there, and I usually find the person who did it. There are no real big problems with the counting processes. These are done with the supervision of both parties and you can be very confident in the election counting process”.

Belt said Trump’s the rhetoric of stolen elections affected republican attitudes.

Election laws, of course, vary by state.

Thirty-six states have laws requiring voters to present a form of identification at the polls, according to NCSL.

The remaining 14 states and Washington, DC, use other methods to verify voter ID, NCSL says.

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

Arizona: Strict no photo ID. If ID is not presented, the voter votes on a provisional ballot and must return to present ID within five days.

Georgia: Strict photo ID. If ID is not presented, the voter votes on a provisional ballot and must return to present ID within three days.

Michigan: Photo ID was 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 ID is not presented, the voter votes on a provisional ballot and must return to present ID before close of business the day before canvassing.

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

Wisconsin: Strict photo ID.

States have other laws in place to prevent voter fraud.

At least 35 states have statutes that prohibit it manipulation of voting systemsaccording to NCSL.

Double vote it is often classified as a felony, and 19 states explicitly prohibit voting in several states.

Eight states prohibit voting twice in the state or for the same office, NCSL says.

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

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