Election Fraud & Security
Many Americans are genuinely worried about election integrity. This brief looks at what investigators, courts, and election experts have actually found.
Across every study cited here, documented fraud runs below 0.002% of ballots cast — and in most, far below.
The Heritage Foundation — which warns about election security — keeps a database of proven fraud cases that it calls "a sampling." As of August 2026 it listed 1,619 cases spanning several decades. Set against the more than 1 billion votes cast in that time, that is under 0.0002% of ballots — roughly 1 in 600,000.[18][5]
A U.S. Department of Justice review of the 2002–2004 federal elections could prove fraud in 0.00000013% of ballots and found no coordinated effort to tilt an election. A separate review of 84 million votes found 14 cases referred for prosecution.[2]
A study in The Washington Post found 31 credible cases of voter impersonation — voting in person as someone else — from 2000–2014, out of more than 1 billion ballots, about 0.000003%.[16][2]
Federal law requires states to match voter lists against state death records.[20] One example: in December 2024, Utah's Legislative Auditor General matched two years of death certificates against the state voter list. Of Utah's 2 million-plus registered voters, over 1,400 likely deceased voters had not been removed and nearly 700 were still marked active. Checking all 1,400 for voting activity, auditors found 2 ballots cast, both in the November 2023 election. The audit notes some matches may be false.[19]
In Arizona, going back 25 years produced 36 cases of voter fraud out of 42,626,379 ballots — 0.0000845%, or about 1 in 1.2 million.[1]
An Associated Press review of the six disputed 2020 battleground states found fewer than 475 possible fraud cases out of more than 25 million ballots — under 0.002%.[3]
An Arizona State University records search across all 50 states catalogued 2,068 alleged cases of every fraud type since 2000 — a rate researchers called "infinitesimal."[17]
Recounts, audits, lawsuits, and contests in the 2020 battleground states did not change the presidential result.[4]
Federal law requires states to match voter lists against felony records.[20] Whether a conviction costs someone the vote depends on the state: 3 jurisdictions never remove it; 23 restore it on release; 15 restore it after parole and / or probation; 10 require a pardon, a waiting period, or other action. A felony conviction alone does not make a ballot illegal.[22]
In August 2026 the Census Bureau posted a seven-page document. It says a computer match of records flagged over 24,000 of 128 million 2020 voters as noncitizens — 2 in 10,000.[23] The Bureau's own 2014 test of the same matching system found errors at about 8 times that rate.[24]
It names no author and no office. It reports no error rate. Its team had no access to names, and it describes no check of any individual case. Its voter list came from a private company, not from state election records. Its totals do not add up: 128 million checked plus 32 million remaining is 160 million, but the one voter file it used holds 146.7 million. It counts anyone once listed in a federal noncitizen record as a noncitizen unless a citizenship record is found.[23]
In July 2026 the Department of Homeland Security announced close to 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada's voter rolls. In August it sent Nevada a list of 185 it was confident about. It said more than 14,000 names still needed review.[25] North Carolina's bipartisan elections board audited the 2016 election: 41 noncitizens voted, out of nearly 4.8 million voters.[29] Michigan's Department of State reviewed 2024: 16 likely noncitizen votes, out of more than 5.7 million.[30] Georgia's Republican secretary of state audited the rolls in 2024: 20 noncitizens among 8.2 million registered voters. Only 9 of the 20 had ever cast a ballot; 156 more records went for further review.[31]
SAVE is a Homeland Security system built to check the immigration status of noncitizens and naturalized citizens applying for government benefits. After a March 2025 executive order, the department rebuilt it to check voter rolls, adding Social Security records and U.S. citizens. The department says it checked more than 65 million voters in 26 states and flagged 28,635. In Utah and Texas, some of those flagged proved to be citizens.[28] North Carolina's elections board wrote in 2017 that a SAVE match "is not a reliable indicator" that a person is not a citizen.[29] In June 2026 a judge ruled, in a case brought by voting and privacy groups, that the rebuilt system violates privacy law. The government says the ruling makes ineligible voters harder to detect. It has asked the Supreme Court to lift it; no ruling as of September 21, 2026.[28]
Mail ballots pass through multiple checks: voter registration verification, signature or ID matching, ballot tracking, and documented chain-of-custody handling.[10][11][12][15]
Ballot drop boxes are typically subject to security measures such as locked design, regular collection schedules, documented chain of custody, and, in many jurisdictions, camera or in-person monitoring.[13][14]
Mail ballots take extra time to process, verify, and count. Election-night totals may not include all of them.[12]
A March 2026 executive order led to a Postal Service rule: states would give the Postal Service lists of mail-ballot voters, and it could refuse ballots for anyone not listed. A federal judge blocked the rule, finding it likely violates the Constitution, under which states run elections. The administration says the rule will prevent voter fraud. On September 14, 2026 the Supreme Court left the block in place. The Postal Service cannot enforce the rule while the lawsuits continue.[33] The same order directs federal agencies to send each state a list of people its records show to be citizens. The first deadline, September 4, 2026, passed with no list.[26][27]
From 2018 to early 2025, a federally funded national center alerted election officials to security threats, at no cost to them. In March 2025 the Department of Homeland Security ended the funding, saying the work no longer supported its priorities.[34] In April 2026 Congress directed the department to continue the center. On September 2, 2026 the senior Democrats on the Senate and House election committees wrote that none of the more than $39.6 million had been paid. They reminded the department of Congress's direction and asked for an answer by September 9.[35]
- Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections; violations can bring fines, prison time, or both.[6]
- In 2024, over 98% of election jurisdictions used voting equipment with a paper ballot or auditable paper record; 93% of states, territories and D.C. require voting-system testing and certification.[32] Many states require post-election audits.[7][8]
- Election administration is decentralized, which means errors, hacking or misconduct in one place do not automatically affect the whole country.
- Voter lists are matched against state death and felony records. Federal law bars removing anyone solely for not voting, halts systematic removals 90 days before a federal election, and opens the records of the process to public inspection.[20][21]
- Hear a count of "noncitizen voters"? Ask: was each case checked, or is it a computer match?
- YOU are part of security. Observe your own voting experience. Ask questions to clarify.
- Across the studies and reviews cited here, documented fraud has been found at rates below 0.002% of ballots cast — most far lower.[1][2][3]
- Recounts, audits, lawsuits, and contests in the 2020 battleground states did not change the outcome.[4]
- U.S. elections are decentralized across thousands of jurisdictions, most using paper records or paper-backed systems, and many states require post-election audits.[8]
- Noncitizen voting is a federal crime; a review of Heritage's own database found 89 proven cases of noncitizen voting.[5][6]
- In one state audit, over 1,400 likely deceased voters were found still on the voter rolls — and 2 ballots cast.[19]
- Mail ballots take extra time to verify and count; election-night totals may not include all of them.[12]
electionline — the nation's nonpartisan, non-advocacy clearinghouse for daily news on election administration, from the Election Center (National Association of Election Officials). electionline.org
Every Fact Brief follows the same discipline — so you can trust what's on these pages, and check it yourself.
Prepared for educational purposes from publicly available sources believed reliable at the time of publication. Readers are encouraged to consult the original sources.
A www.ClaimYourVoterPower.org Fact Brief. Free to print, copy, host, and distribute unaltered, with attribution (CC BY-ND 4.0). Quotation with citation welcome. Published September 2026.