Voter fraud exists, but hardly rampant

We hear a lot about voter fraud. But claims that election outcomes are determined by the votes of dead people, illegal immigrants or convicted felons are largely overblown. That is the case in Wisconsin, where the state Elections Commission says it did find evidence of voter fraud in our 2018 elections. A whopping 24 cases, a fraction of the 2.7 million votes cast in the November election. The commission says it found two dozen cases of suspected fraud in 2018. That included some people reportedly voting twice, felons casting ballots and one person voting absentee in the name of a deceased person. And a handful of 17 year olds may have cast ballots, because some states, like neighboring Illinois, allow 17 year olds to cast ballots if they will be 18 by the time of the election. But that sounds worse than it is. It is not even clear to the Election Commission whether the suspected voters actually cast ballots, or were prevented from doing so. Many of the cases were discovered in post-election audits. It is possible some could be criminally prosecuted, but that will be up to local district attorneys where the fraud was committed. So yes, there is voter fraud. But it is minuscule, and had no impact on the outcome of the elections. And whether they intentionally committed fraud, or simply made a mistake, they didn’t get away with it. The instances were discovered. While we all want fair elections, it seems voter fraud is hardly rampant in Wisconsin.