CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Across the country, we’ve seen protest sparking up with some saying “count the votes” and others saying “stop the vote,” and at the root of it there’s a real concern over voter fraud. Experts say it’s not warranted.
Gaston County Elections Director Adam Ragan says the idea of widespread voter fraud is something you see on social media and spreads like wildfire, but is not actually happening.
While there may be isolated incidents under investigation, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the country. Dr. Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University says voter fraud is not as problematic as people think.
“You are more likely to get cancer and get struck by lightning combined than to encounter voter fraud,” Dr. Huffmon said. “The number of fraudulent ballots is miniscule and they get caught.”
While this year may have broken records for mail in and absentee ballots, it’s not a new process.
“The truth is, we have been taking in mail in ballots in the United States since the Civil War,” Dr. Huffmon said. “The states have this down pat, it’s just not true to say that they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Dr. Huffmon says the Constitution allows each state to set their own rules, causing perceived delays or ballot dumps.
“Pennsylvania was not allowed to start counting until election day itself. Other states could start counting early and those states released almost immediately,” Dr. Huffmon said.
Dr. Huffmon says elections officials take their oaths of maintaining free and fair elections seriously.
“Complaining about alleged widespread conduct in recounting is telling people the oaths they have taken, the professionalism they have, means nothing in the face of my partisan preferences,” Dr. Huffmon said.
Ragan says if you do know of voter fraud, report it.
“Contact your county board of elections office, let us research it, let us look into it and see if there’s validity to it,” Ragan said. “What we’ve found is 9 times out of 10, there is no validity to that.”
If you’re looking for your ballot status on the North Carolina elections website, you can find that in the Your Absentee Ballot section if you voted early or by mail. If you voted in person on election day, you ballot status will not be there yet as counties have to insert that manually, which could take weeks.