A team of Associated Press reporters spent months reviewing every possible voter fraud case in six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump, and they found "fewer than 475 — a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election," AP reports. The disputed ballots identified in more than 300 local election offices amounted to just 0.15 percent of President Biden's margin of victory in the six states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
"The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not," AP reports. "The cases are bipartisan. Some of those charged with fraud are registered Republicans or told investigators they were supporters of Trump." In fact, every specific case written up in the AP report involved a Trump supporter voting twice or casing a ballot illegally.
Three apparent Trump supporters were recently arrested in Florida and charged with casting more than one vote, The Washington Post reports. The three residents of The Villages are charged with having voted in Florida and also another state — Michigan, New York, and an undisclosed state, the Post says, and they were arrested after the county elections supervisor ordered an investigation.
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All these cases "underscore that suspected fraud is both generally detected and exceptionally rare," AP reports, but "Trump's false claims of a stolen election fueled the deadly Jan. 6 attempted insurrection at the Capitol, have led to death threats against election officials, and have become deeply ingrained within the GOP, with two-thirds of Republicans believing Biden's election is illegitimate."
Asked for comment, "Trump repeated a litany of unfounded claims of fraud he had made previously, but offered no new evidence that specifically contradicted the AP's reporting," AP says. "He said a soon-to-come report from a source he would not disclose would support his case." Trump told AP, "I just don't think you should make a fool out of yourself by saying 400 votes."
"Voter fraud is virtually non-existent," George Christenson, election clerk for Wisconsin's Milwaukee County, told AP. "I would have to venture a guess that's about the same odds as getting hit by lightning."
