Voter Fraud: A Historical Look at a Rare Phenomenon

Concerns regarding the integrity of elections have risen, with many individuals expressing anxiety over the potential for voter fraud, Mr. Beat noted. These concerns include claims that deceased individuals remain on voter rolls.

Critics often argue that election officials do not rigorously verify citizenship, implying that non-citizens could affect election outcomes. Former President Trump, for example, once threatened Nevada with funding cuts over its mail-in primaries, highlighting the political dimension of these concerns.

Registering ineligible voters or forging ballots are primary ways to execute voter fraud, which Mr. Beat defines as interfering with an election to cheat. This can involve attempting to increase or decrease a candidate's vote share by registering ineligible voters.

Other methods include straight-up forging ballots. Such fraudulent activities can occur at various points in the election process, from the initial registration of voters all the way through to the final counting of ballots.

Electoral fraud has a long history, dating back to ancient times, Mr. Beat stated. In ancient Greece, people were bribed to vote in particular ways, and non-citizens sometimes found methods to cast votes illegally.

Ancient Rome also saw instances of election manipulation, primarily through intimidation tactics employed by mobs at voting locations. By the 17th century in England, political candidates commonly influenced voters by hosting parties that offered food and alcohol.

Early American voting was largely restricted to white male property owners, and the process was public and non-secret, often relying on voice votes or unofficial paper ballots. Candidates frequently engaged in a practice called 'treating,' providing alcohol, food, and gifts to voters near polling sites right before they cast their public votes.

George Washington famously, or infamously, employed this tactic in 1758, supplying 144 gallons of alcohol to nearly 400 voters to secure their support. Local governments did not standardize ballots until the 1820s.

During this period, political parties printed their own colored ballots, which further facilitated manipulation and fraud. Many historians argue that voter fraud peaked during the Gilded Age in the United States.

In New York City, Tammany Hall utilized repeat voters who altered their appearances to cast ballots multiple times, a practice contributing to the Gilded Age peak of fraud noted by historians. Organizations like New York City's Tammany Hall machine systematically used repeat voters, who would change their appearances to cast multiple ballots at different polling sites.

Another notorious tactic was 'cooping,' where gangs would kidnap individuals, often force-feeding them alcohol or drugs, to coerce them into casting votes for specific candidates. These methods illustrate the extent of electoral manipulation during that era.

A scandal involving the Republican Party in Indiana in 1888 sparked a significant movement to adopt secret ballots. This reform allowed voters to maintain anonymity at polling sites, marking their ballots in private booths.

The introduction of standardized, official ballots and private voting booths made it nearly impossible for individuals to be bribed or pressured into voting a certain way, as their choices were no longer publicly observable.

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Administrative manipulation, such as the practice of casting 'Graveyard votes,' replaced physical street-level intimidation as the primary method of election interference by the 1900s. This new era saw the emergence of 'Graveyard votes,' where ballots were cast in the names of deceased individuals who remained on voter rolls.

While journalists often claimed the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election in Chicago was rigged due to such methods, historians generally conclude that the impact of this fraud was minimal. Instead, voter suppression, the act of preventing legal citizens from voting, became the preferred method for rigging elections, with white politicians in the South using claims of fighting fraud to implement poll taxes and literacy tests. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 24th Amendment were critical in ending the systemic disenfranchisement of Black citizens.

Administrative manipulation became a prevalent form of election interference, exemplified by 'Graveyard votes' where ballots were cast under the names of deceased individuals still listed on voter rolls. The 1960 presidential election, with alleged fraud by Chicago Mayor Richard Daly's Democratic Party machine, is often cited as an example, although its overall impact on the outcome was limited.

The truth, Mr. Beat stated, was that widespread voter fraud was already difficult to execute by this time. Instead, voter suppression, which aimed to prevent legal citizens from voting, became the favored method for rigging elections, often ironically justified by those claiming to fight fraud.

Elections in the United States are managed by over 10,000 different jurisdictions at the state, county, and municipal levels, operating as a bottom-up rather than top-down system. Each locality employs its own unique registration systems, ballot designs, and even types of voting machines, making any attempt at widespread voter fraud incredibly difficult to coordinate effectively.

Research from the Brennan Center for Justice indicates that the overall rate of voter fraud in the United States is exceptionally low, estimated at approximately 0.00003%. Justin Levitt's comprehensive study, analyzing over 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014, found only 31 credible instances of voter impersonation.

Even data from the conservative Heritage Foundation, which tracked voter fraud instances from 1989 to 2025, identified 1,619 cases out of roughly 2 billion votes, calculating a rate of about 0.00008095%. Statistically, an American is far more likely to be struck by lightning than to encounter voter fraud in an election.

Google search trends for 'voter fraud' consistently peak during presidential election years, indicating a surge in public interest. A massive spike in these searches occurred in 2020, driven primarily by unsubstantiated claims from influential political leaders.

Despite extensive searches, there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Public mistrust remains high, with 40% of Americans still doubting the security of elections today.

Internet search traffic for 'voter fraud' consistently spikes around American presidential elections, with a particularly dramatic increase observed in 2020. This surge in interest was not due to evidence, but rather the unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud made by political leadership, according to Mr. Beat, who called the individual a "sore loser" with a history of lying. This has contributed to significant public distrust, as a recent survey found that only 60% of Americans are confident there won't be voter fraud in upcoming midterm elections.

Despite ongoing public skepticism, elections in the United States are generally very secure at this moment in history, Mr. Beat asserted. He highlighted that the likelihood of encountering voter fraud is infinitesimally small, comparable to getting drunk from eating too much bread. He made this video specifically to address the 40% of Americans who still don't trust the country's election systems.