An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in six battleground states found fewer than 475 cases, the outlet reports.
President Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by a combined 311,000 votes out of about 25.5 million ballots cast.
The disputed votes represent just 0.15% of his margin of victory, far too little to tip the election as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed. Most of the ballots were not counted anyway.
Trump insisted to the AP that an upcoming report from a source he would not identify would reveal “hundreds of thousands” of fraudulent votes, though there has been no evidence in the 13 months since the election of any widespread fraud.
In fact, some of the cases identified by the AP were people who voted illegally for Trump. None of the cases were connected.
“Virtually non-existent”:
The AP analysis adds to an extensive body of research that has shown that voter fraud is incredibly rare, both in 2020 and other elections.
“Voter fraud is virtually non-existent,” Milwaukee County election clerk George Christenson told the AP. “I would have to venture a guess that’s about the same odds as getting hit by lightning.”
The battleground state with the highest number of potential fraud cases was Arizona, where the AP identified 198 such cases. But the total number represents less than 2% of Biden’s margin of victory in the state.
Those cases have also been sent to prosecutors.
“There is a very specific reason why we don’t see many instances of fraud, and that is because the system is designed to catch it, to flag it and then hold those people accountable,” Amber McReynolds, the founder of the National Vote at Home Institute, told the AP.
Some potential fraudsters backed Trump:
And while Trump has accused Democrats of cheating, a significant number of potential fraud cases identified by the AP involved voters who cast their ballots for him.
Donald Holz voted for Trump in Wisconsin even though he is still on parole from a DUI.
In Pennsylvania, 72-year-old Ralph Thurman, a registered Republican, pleaded guilty to illegally voting in his son’s name.
Nevada businessman Kirk Hartle publicly alleged that someone illegally voted by mail using his dead wife’s name before pleading guilty to doing it himself.
