Kerby Anderson

One question I am frequently asked is: Why isn’t the government prosecuting voter fraud? My quick answer is that state and local governments are charging people with voter fraud, but often the media isn’t reporting it.

News outlets may not think it is an important story. Or they may fear that reporting the prosecutions would stimulate more questions about the security of our vote. Not reporting investigations into voter fraud makes it easier for critics of voter integrity laws to maintain that these legislative revisions are merely trying to find a solution for a non-existent problem.

Just in the last week, I had three different articles land in my inbox that demonstrate that election fraud prosecution is taking place right now. In Michigan, three women were charged with crimes related to voter fraud. One woman, for example, stole a stack of absentee voter applications meant for nursing home residents, filled them out, and forged the residents’ signatures. In Georgia, two workers in Fulton County lost their jobs due to accusations of voter fraud, which led to a public statement from the Georgia Secretary of State about such embarrassing revelations.

A former judge of elections was charged in the voter fraud scheme in Philadelphia from 2015-2019. This included cash payments along with supporting family, friends, and allies for elective office. Of even greater importance was the statement by prosecutors that fraud occurred “at every level of government, from municipal to state to federal.”

Most of these stories carry the disclaimer that finding fraud does not prove there was “widespread voter fraud.” But that isn’t the point. The problem isn’t widespread fraud but targeted voter fraud that can occur in certain cities and precincts. We need laws that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.