Investigation finds in-person voter fraud "virtually non-existent"
Proponents of restrictive voter ID laws claim that they are necessary to combat voter fraud; but an investigation by News21,
based on an exhaustive public records search, has found that the sort of fraud that voter ID laws would prevent, voter impersonation on Election Day, is virtually non-existent.
From Who Can Vote? - A News21 2012 National Project:
Analysis of the resulting comprehensive News21 election fraud database turned up 10 cases of voter impersonation. With 146 million registered voters in the United States during that time, those 10 cases represent one out of about every 15 million prospective voters.
“Voter fraud at the polls is an insignificant aspect of American elections,” said elections expert David Schultz, professor of public policy at Hamline University School of Business in St. Paul, Minn.
For comparison, the investigation found 491 instances of fraud involving absentee ballots, and 400 cases of registration fraud.