No, Mail-In Ballots Don't Cause Massive Fraud — Decades of Data Prove It
“Mail-in ballots are inherently insecure and lead to massive fraud.”
Why it spread
People who already distrust institutions were primed to believe this, and prominent political figures amplified it strategically. When someone fears their side might lose, a story about systemic cheating feels more plausible than it actually is — even without real evidence to back it up.
The claim that mail-in voting is inherently insecure and riddled with widespread fraud has circulated widely, especially around the 2020 election. The verdict is clear: it's false. Research and official findings from across the political spectrum show that mail-in ballot fraud is extraordinarily rare, not massive.
Sources
- Heritage Foundation Election Fraud Database
Even this conservative organization's database, which actively tracks fraud cases, documents only around 1,300 proven instances of mail-in ballot fraud over decades across billions of votes cast, representing a vanishingly small fraction of total ballots.
- MIT Election Data and Science Lab
Researchers found that voter fraud, including mail-in ballot fraud, is exceedingly rare. Studies consistently show fraud rates of 0.00004% to 0.0025% of ballots cast.
- Brennan Center for Justice - Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth
A comprehensive review found that Americans are more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit mail-in voter fraud. States with long-standing universal vote-by-mail systems like Oregon, Washington, and Colorado have not experienced significant fraud.
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) - 2020 Election Security Statement
CISA, led by Trump-appointed director Christopher Krebs, declared the 2020 election 'the most secure in American history,' with no evidence of widespread fraud including via mail-in ballots.
- National Conference of State Legislatures - Voting Outside the Polling Place
NCSL documents that states employ multiple security measures for mail-in ballots including signature verification, ballot tracking, and criminal penalties for fraud, making large-scale fraud logistically implausible.
- Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project
Research found no evidence that vote-by-mail increases fraud or benefits one political party over another, and that existing safeguards are effective at catching the rare instances of attempted fraud.
Aarav Jindal
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