Allegations of Voter Fraud
The "voter fraud" cry has been increasingly used to justify policies that suppress legitimate voters. But the cry is baseless; allegations of voter fraud—especially polling place impersonation fraud—almost always prove to be inflated or inaccurate. The Brennan Center carefully examines allegations of fraud to get at the truth behind the claims. The truth of the matter is that voter fraud—votes knowingly cast by ineligible individuals—is exceedingly rare; one is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud. Our work debunking the voter fraud myth is available at Truth About Fraud.
In 2007, the Brennan Center released The Truth About Voter Fraud,
the most extensive analysis of voter fraud claims to date. The report
finds that most allegations of fraud turn out to be baseless—and that
of the few allegations remaining, most reveal election irregularities
and other forms of election misconduct, rather than fraud by individual
voters. The type of individual voter fraud supposedly targeted by
recent legislative efforts—especially efforts to require certain
forms of voter ID—simply does not exist. A presentation describing vote suppression measures promoted by the U.S. Department of Justice can be found here.
Crawford v. Marion County Election Board
Determining which American citizens are able to exercise their right to vote and which Americans are not, the Indiana voter ID case is the most important voting rights case since Bush v. Gore.
FOIA Request to EAC Re: Commissioned Reports
In 2006 and 2007, the Brennan Center filed a FOIA request with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to obtain documents pertaining to commissioned reports on voter fraud and voter intimidation and on voter ID.
If you weren’t reading carefully, then you might have missed an important nugget in a voter fraud story buried in Tuesday’s presidential primary coverage....
Election Protection Off to a Great Start Assisting
Nearly 400 Hotline Calls So Far Reporting Primary Election Barriers.
Brennan Center Criticizes Supreme Court Decision to Uphold Indiana Voter ID Law
Brennan Center for Justice criticized Court’s decision to uphold Indiana’s voter identification law—the strictest in the country—but noted that the decision did not give other states a blank check to block eligible voters
Brennan Center Applauds Introduction of House Bill to Protect Against “Voter Caging”
Voting rights experts at the Brennan Center applauded the introduction of legislation by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).
Testimony of Deborah Goldberg Before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Elections
Democracy Program Director Deborah Goldberg testifies before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Elections on voter registration and voter list maintenance.
An Agenda for Americas Voters: Election Reform in the 110th Congress
This federal election reform agenda is the product of years of research and experience by the civil rights, voting rights, civic participation, and progressive advocacy community.