I have long maintained that the two main factors that keep our elections from being truly democratic are redistricting and money in politics. We are seeing both of those factors at play today. States controlled by one party are conducting mid-decade redistricting to achieve partisan advantage and to block the other party from electing their candidates. Vast amounts of money, usually from super-rich donors, are going into PACs that don’t have to disclose their donors.
However, there is a third factor, a lie, that is negatively shaping our elections. That lie is that our elections are being sabotaged by fraudulent voting, and the main source of fraudulent votes is purported to be immigrants. This lie persists in spite of numerous studies that have disproved the claim.
A report by LULAC and Democracy Defenders Action states: “Of the billions of votes cast in United States federal elections over the past decades, those supposedly cast in violation of citizenship requirements have accounted for a negligible percentage, one that is nearly unquantifiably small.” They cite “a 2017 report by the Brennan Center that found an estimated 30 incidents out of 235 million votes cast across 42 jurisdictions, or 1.3 questionable votes per one million votes cast.” The libertarian think tank Cato Institute concluded that “non-citizens don’t illegally vote in detectable numbers.”
But the claim keeps getting made. And people tend to believe something that sounds familiar because they have hard it so many times before. Politicians in 2019 claimed that tens of thousands voted illegally in Texas, but there was no evidence to support those claims. Shortly after the 2016 election, then President-Elect Donald Trump alleged that millions voted in violation of citizenship requirements, but no evidence was provided. At least a dozen reports examined the claim of voter fraud, and most cited studies that reviewed the votes and found only a small number of questionable votes out of millions cast. Those who claim voter fraud is rampant don’t acknowledge that the very few questionable votes that were found would not have changed the outcome of the election.
What is the damage done when focusing on voter fraud? There are several outcomes that are harmful to our democracy. One is that people lose faith in the validity of our elections. Blaming immigrants for fraudulent votes tends to stigmatize the immigrants, making them fearful of even trying to vote after becoming citizens. When they don’t vote, they lose the ability to influence policies that directly affect their lives.
Besides scaring individuals so they won’t go to the polls, other government actions arise that appear designed to keep people from voting. The use of ICE and CBP officers to patrol the streets may cause some people to decide not to try to vote.
We can counter the mis- and dis-information with the facts. At a minimum, you can talk about the studies that have shown that the amount of voter fraud is miniscule and does not change the outcome of the elections. Since a lot of the lies are advanced through social media, it is critical to develop a concerted offense online. Working with an investigative journalist is also helpful. They can dig into the data and showcase how often the claims of fraudulent voting are exaggerated or clearly wrong.
A local study using investigative journalism was reported in the Dallas Morning News on May 18, 2008. Using a federal grant of $1.4 million, then Attorney General Greg Abbott studied voting in 44 counties that either had a population that exceeded 100,000 or had a history of voter fraud. He found 26 questionable cases. In 18 of those cases, the people who collected the ballots to mail them failed to put their name and address on the mailing envelope. Only eight voters were prosecuted.
Studies have found that the best way to change someone’s mind or dispel the lies is to talk to them, and the best people to talk to them are neighbors, friends or family. In this case, listen carefully and use facts to counter the falsehoods.
Also helpful is working with organizations like the League of Women Voters to ensure that people are well informed about voter eligibility and registration requirements. Educating local volunteers with clear, accurate information and easy to convey talking points can help them begin to change other people’s minds from the lies that have been repeatedly told. Other remedies include filing law suits or submitting an amicus brief on pending litigation. This tool has been successfully used by the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice.