The introduction on the White House website’s ‘Voter Fraud’ page ominously states, “The United States has a long and unfortunate history of election fraud.” This declaration is set against a striking blood-red backdrop featuring empty voting booths. The visual message is unmistakable: fear, terror, a democracy in decline, and freedom at risk.
However, this isn’t some obscure right-wing blog; it’s whitehouse.gov, sourcing information from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank focused on obstructing progressive values.
Former President Trump and his supporters have long championed the notion of widespread voter fraud. A commission established by Trump in 2017 to probe claims of mass voter fraud resulted in one of his administration’s more significant embarrassments. The commission asserted it had identified 100,000 instances of voter fraud yet failed to provide any supporting evidence. Matt Dunlap, a Democratic election official from Maine, was denied access to 1,800 documents while serving on the commission. After obtaining these documents through a court order, he found no proof backing the claims made by Republican members. The commission was disbanded by January, but not before platforms like Breitbart misled millions of followers about the supposed 100,000 cases of voter fraud.
Despite this, the Trump administration persisted in promoting the narrative of voter fraud: “This is not an exhaustive list but simply a sampling that demonstrates the many different ways in which fraud is committed,” claims the whitehouse.gov site. This wording is deliberately misleading. If I aimed to present a solid, data-backed case illustrating the prevalence of voter fraud, I wouldn’t refer to a “sampling” to demonstrate “many different ways” fraud could occur. There’s a reason they aren’t forthcoming with clear numbers.
What I gleaned from their “data” is that The Heritage Foundation managed to find sporadic instances of minor, individual voter fraud rather than any large-scale conspiracy threatening democracy. The page even mentions “1,071 proven instances of voter fraud,” which, considering the term “proven,” suggests a clever twist on words implying that “legally, we can only show cases with convictions, so this tiny selection is all we have.”
Additionally, The Heritage Foundation’s data lacks a specified timeframe. There are no scientific numbers or percentages indicating the prevalence of voter fraud over a defined period. They claim their database offers a “sampling of recent proven instances of election fraud,” yet “recent” is never clarified. Does it include events from 1982? That’s how far back their data extends.
Neither whitehouse.gov nor The Heritage Foundation specifies what types of elections are represented. Are these instances from national elections only, or do they include local elections as well? And if so, how local? It seems relevant to know which elections might be more vulnerable to fraud.
The Heritage Foundation employs vague language like “can.” For example, they state, “fraud can have an impact in close elections.” The use of “can” indicates a lack of solid evidence to assert that fraud “does” impact elections. They have not presented a single confirmed case where voter fraud altered the outcome of any election. Americans should be cautious of such misleading language—“can” and “does” hold very different meanings.
An organization truly committed to truth would clearly outline variables like timeframe and location. It would describe something like, “From 19XX to 20XX, in a review of elections from Location ABC to Location XYZ, X number of instances of voter fraud occurred, indicating X% of election interference.” An unbiased, fact-driven organization would not throw around terms like “recent,” which is utterly meaningless in a historical context, and cite voter fraud data from 40 years ago.
Shouldn’t it also be relevant to note the political affiliations of the alleged fraudsters? The implication from Trump supporters is that any fraud must involve Democrats. A quick search of a case involving a Republican, like John Smith, who was convicted of illegal voting in 2010, shows that fraud isn’t limited to one party. It wouldn’t surprise me if instances of voter fraud ended up being balanced across the political spectrum.
The Trump administration and The Heritage Foundation know they are using vague, misleading language. They assume their followers will see a figure over a thousand and jump to conclusions about its implications. Properly indoctrinated supporters believe that each of those 1,000+ instances represents large, coordinated efforts that significantly influenced election outcomes. They often overlook critical details: 1. Most cases involve individuals acting alone, 2. The data spans a 40-year period, 3. Instances of fraud exist on both sides, and 4. There’s no definitive evidence showing that voter fraud has ever altered an election outcome.
The White House and The Heritage Foundation present this information publicly, confident that many will not take the time to analyze the data. The truth is that the number of people convicted of voter fraud annually in the U.S. is comparable to those who get struck by lightning. It’s a simple calculation that apparently escapes many supporters.
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Summary
The White House’s ‘Voter Fraud’ page uses alarming language and selective data from The Heritage Foundation to suggest a widespread problem that lacks substantial evidence. The claims often rely on vague wording and historical data that don’t clearly define the scope of the issue. The actual instances of voter fraud appear to be minimal and lack impact on election outcomes, contradicting the narrative pushed by some political factions.