Absentee or mail-in voting fraud occurs when a person commits voter fraud by voting absentee or by mail. examples include attempting to vote more than once, attempting to vote using someone else’s name, and attempting to vote knowing you are not eligible to vote.
There is debate about the extent to which this and other forms of voter fraud occur. two sides are presented here. John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, a self-described conservative think tank, wrote that “the media is doing our democracy no favors by summarily ruling out the existence of voter fraud, such as the nearly 1,200 proven cases in the heritage foundation’s voter fraud database, while questioning the very need for accurate voter registration.” research is that the rate of illegal voting is extremely rare and the incidence of certain types of fraud, such as impersonating another voter, is virtually nonexistent.”[3][4]
This and other ballotpedia pages cover types of voter and electoral fraud for which there are documented cases and around which there is debate about the frequency of cases and proposed responses.
- voter registration fraud
- ballot stuffing
- criminal voter fraud
- absentee/mail ballot fraud
- voter suppression
- voter caging and purging
- votes cast on behalf of deceased persons
- voter spoofing
- fraudulent signatures
relevant research
brennan center for justice
The Brennan Center for Justice published a report in 2007 by Justin Levitt that argued that voter fraud, including fraudulent absentee or mail-in voting, is rare. the report stated that most cases of suspected fraud are due to clerical errors, accidental voter errors, typographical errors, and erroneous assumptions regarding the underlying data and lists. According to the report, “By any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. In part, this is because fraud by individual voters is a singularly foolish and ineffective way of trying to win an election. Every act of voter fraud in relationship with a federal government the election risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, in addition to any state sanctions.in return, produces at most one incremental vote….instead, lots of evidence purporting to reveal fraud can be attributed to much more logical causes than voter fraud”.[5]
government accountability office
In 2006, the United States Election Assistance Commission interviewed experts and conducted a literature review of studies on voter fraud. The report stated the following: “These interviews largely confirmed the conclusions that were drawn from the articles, reports, and books reviewed. for vote buying and voter registration fraud.”[6][7]
patrimonial foundation
The Heritage Foundation Voter Fraud Database contained, as of December 2019, 239 cases since 1997 in which one or more persons were found to have committed voter fraud using an absentee or mail-in ballot. heritage claims that its database contains a sample of “voter fraud cases from across the country, broken down by state, where people were convicted of voter fraud or where a judge overturned the results of an election.”[8]
case studies
This section provides a sample of two cases where someone was convicted of absentee/mail-in voting fraud in 2014.
- in 2014, robert lee youngblood, a candidate for the county board of education in randolph, north carolina, cast an absentee/mail ballot in the primary election for the seat. on the first day of early voting, he cast a duplicate ballot at the polls. he pleaded guilty to voter fraud charges and was sentenced to two days in jail, followed by 18 months of unsupervised probation. youngblood was fined $750.[9]
- in 2014, verna roehm, a north carolina woman, pleaded guilty to absentee/mail ballot fraud. during a post-election audit of the 2012 results, officials discovered that she had cast a mail-in ballot under her late husband’s name. Roehm said her late husband’s last wish was to vote for Mitt Romney in the presidential election. Although she was initially charged with a felony, the judge convicted her of a misdemeanor “due to the unusual circumstances of the case.” Roehm did not receive a jail sentence for the rape.[10]
related policy issues
ballotpedia examines related topics and the debates surrounding them on the following pages:
- arguments for and against unexcused absentee/mail-in voting
- state mail ballot collection and return laws
- arguments for and against against restricting who can return mail ballots
see also
- election fraud
- absentee/mail voting
- electoral governance by state
- voting and electoral governance: issues of support and opposition
- voting rights for convicted felons
- voter ID laws by state
- mail ballot collection and return laws by state
- laws that allow non-citizens to vote in the united states
external links
- “get your absentee ballot now!” provided by long distance voter
- overseas voting foundation
- federal assistance program to vote (fvap)
- project no vote by mail
further reading
- Coleman, Kevin J. (2014) “The Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act: Overview and Issues” by Congressional Research Service
- “Historical Use of Voting Ballots absentee voting in california” by california secretary of state debra bowen