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A video on Instagram claims that “old age voter fraud” is still taking hold in the US with a sign that the size of the country’s voter rolls.
“Is voter fraud real?” read the title of the video, created by PragerU and comments by Eric Eggers, a conservative journalist and author of a book that says the Democrats are planning to steal the elections.
“In 244 counties across the United States, there are more registered voters than eligible voters,” Eggers said in the video. “Twenty-nine states have counties that have more registered voters than legal residents. And eight states have more registered voters than actual voters.”
The spokesperson concluded that these figures show that “our voting system is too easy to use.”
PolitiFact was unable to independently verify the numbers shared by PragerU. However, some voter data analyzes over the years have found that a fraction of counties in the state have more voters listed on county-level voter rolls than the number of eligible voters. . But experts say the mere fact that there is no context does not indicate fraud.
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We reached out to PragerU for more information on the claim, and received no response.
Here’s what we know.
The video purports to be a source for the July 2019 Real Clear Politics. It said: “Eight states, plus the District of Columbia, have voter registration rates greater than 100%, and in all, 38 states have counties where voter registration rates are greater than 100%.”
Real Clear Politics did not cite a source for its statistics. But there’s more to the story – we found similar numbers in an August 2019 press release from the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a philanthropic group run by J. Christian Adams, who joined the President’s commission former Donald Trump for a short time.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation has disseminated previous election information.
Jennifer Morrell, partner at The Elections Group, an organization that consults on election management, said that the strength of registered voters has increased the number of eligible voters in some counties and states. It does not mean that there are no votes cast.
“Voter fraud is about the act of voting, not the act of registering to vote or the accuracy of keeping voter rolls,” Morrell said.
For broader context, there are 3,143 counties in the US, which means 244 represent 7.8% of all counties in the country. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that state voter data from November 2020, 168 million people are registered in the country – 72.7% of the eligible voting population – but 66.8%. So, nationally, fewer people vote than people who are registered to vote. And the proportion of registered people is less than those who should.
What we know about voter rolls and eligible voters
Federal law prohibits election officials from removing people from the voting rolls too soon, even if they have moved and are no longer eligible to vote in a particular area.
For that reason, experts cautioned against making conclusions based on data that compares the number of voting-age residents in a state or county to the number of registered voters.
“In most states, when the election office receives notice that a voter has moved, the voter’s record is changed to ‘inactive,'” Morrell said. If displaced voters fail to contact their previous election official, the National Voter Registration Act requires those voters to remain in the state’s voter registration database for two election cycles before removal. .
The Public Interest Legal Foundation’s findings did not say whether it would analyze the data to look only at active voters. Without that information, it’s hard to know what to say about this story, Morrell said.
In 2017, Judicial Watch used data from the US Census Bureau and the Election Assistance Commission to report that many US counties have more registered voters than eligible voters. Several reports, however, suggested that these claims depended on the enrollment of unemployed voters.
“If the reported totals are all registered voters, which I don’t doubt is the case, that’s evidence of a lack of interest in listing protections, outdated federal laws and slow cleaning up the ballots,” Morrell said.
Clipboards and voter registration forms will be on tables on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020, at the United Center gymnasium, a new major polling place in Chicago. (AP)
Charles Stewart, a professor of political science at MIT, explained that the National Voter Registration Act prohibits states from removing people from the voting rolls “for not voting.”
That 1993 law set the terms for when election officials could remove people from voter rolls if they didn’t ask to be removed. States are required to have uniform and non-discriminatory procedures for removing people from the voting rolls, according to the Justice Department.
The National Voter Registration Act allows states to remove a person from the voter list at that person’s request and to remove people for things like criminal prosecution, if allowed by law and the government. In addition, the law requires states to have a “comprehensive voter registration list protection program” that allows them to “reasonably use” to remove people from voter rolls if they have died or moved from in such a way that they do not have the right to vote in that area.
Before a person is removed because of a change of residence, election officials must notify that person in writing that they are at risk of being removed from the rolls, Stewart said. Candidates for taking the voter rolls are designated as “inactive” voters. If inactive voters show up to vote within the state’s two election cycle windows or report to the election office, your registration can be returned to “active.”
However, that is not the case.
“The percentage of inactive voters who stop voting is very low,” Stewart said. “A high fraction, probably around 80%, is taken.”
This means that people who have moved to a different county or state may appear twice on the ballot — once with active voter registration that allows voters to vote in their new district, and the same as an inactive voter used by those voters. hello.
There’s also no requirement for voters to notify their former election official that they’ve left, Stewart said, so it’s “almost guaranteed” there are people on the register who are no longer registered voters. to that area.
However, Stewart said: “There is no evidence of double voting in the United States”
Our decision
A video on Instagram says this is evidence of fraud “in 244 counties across the United States, there are more registered voters than eligible voters.”
We have not been able to verify these figures, but some analyzes of regional-level data over the years have revealed cases where more people were found in the electoral rolls than those who deserve it. But that fact alone is not proof of fraud, experts say. It was also unclear whether those analyzes looked only at active voters. And while the numbers are good, in less than 8% of US counties, there are national voter data showing fewer voters than they should.
The appearance of these long lists reflects the protection issues of the voter list, experts say. The National Voter Registration Act prevents election officials from removing people from the voter rolls too quickly — even if they have reason to believe someone has moved. Those voters are classified as “inactive voters” while they remain on the roll according to state law.
We conclude this claim to be false.
CONSTRUCTION: All our checks are for polls.
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