The fear of voter fraud has a long history of hampering efforts to make voting easier and more inclusive, especially for marginalized groups in American society. With less than a week left before the 2008 presidential election, we’re again hearing horror stories about massive voter fraud, particularly from the party whose candidate is trailing in the polls. But a research report written by Barnard College Professor Lorraine Minnite entitled, “The Politics of Voter Fraud, debunks those charges.

Minnite defines voter fraud as the “intentional corruption of the electoral process by the voter.” Her definition covers knowingly and willingly giving false information to establish voter eligibility, and knowingly and willingly voting illegally or participating in a conspiracy to encourage illegal voting by others. All other forms of corruption of the electoral process fall under the wider definition of election fraud.

The report found that voter fraud is extremely rare. At the federal level, Justice Department records show that only 24 people were convicted of or pleaded guilty to illegal voting between 2002 and 2005, an average of eight people a year. Other reports have found similar results. An analysis of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio revealed a voter fraud rate of .00004 percent. An evaluation of the 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State revealed that voter fraud occurred .0009 percent of the time.

Most voter fraud allegations were limited to local races and individual acts. The vast majority of allegations were based unsubstantiated or false claims by the loser of a close race, mischief and administrative or voter error. Complex rules regulating voter registration and voting contributed to voter mistakes and clerical errors, which often were incorrectly identified as fraud.

Minnite’s report concluded that the lack of evidence for voter fraud was not due to the inability or unwillingness of local law enforcement agencies to investigate or prosecute potential cases of voter fraud. In fact, the Justice Department has made enforcement of election fraud a top priority.

In order to avoid mistakes in the future, she recommends better data, better election administration, transparency and more responsible journalism to improve public understanding of the legitimate ways in which electoral outcomes can be distorted and manipulated.

Until proven otherwise, there is no available evidence suggesting that criminal voters are manipulating the electoral system or intentionally corrupting the electoral process, let alone in numbers that skew or cancel out the lawful votes of the vast majority of Americans. To the contrary, a claim that voter fraud threatens the integrity of American elections is itself a fraud.