Voter Fraud Investigators Find No Systemic Problems In Midterms

State law enforcement units created after the 2020 presidential election to investigate voter fraud are looking into scattered complaints after the midterms without any indication of systemic problems, reports the Associated Press. That’s what election experts expected and has critics saying that the new units were more about politics than rooting out widespread abuses. Most election fraud cases already are investigated and prosecuted locally. Florida, Georgia and Virginia created special units after 2020 pushed by Republican governors, attorneys general or legislatures. “I am not aware of any significant detection of fraud on Election Day, but that’s not surprising,” said Paul Smith of the Campaign Legal Center. “The whole concept of voter impersonation fraud is such a horribly exaggerated problem. It doesn’t change the outcome of the election, it’s a felony, you risk getting put in jail and you have a high possibility of getting caught. It’s a rare phenomena.” The absence of widespread fraud is significant because lies surrounding the 2020 presidential election spread by former President Trump and his allies have penetrated deeply into the Republican Party and eroded trust in elections. In the run-up to this year’s elections, 45 percent of Republicans had little to no confidence that votes would be counted accurately. An AP investigation found no widespread fraud in Georgia or the five other battleground states where Trump disputed his 2020 loss, and so far there is no indication of that in this year’s elections. Certification of the results is going smoothly in most states. In Georgia, where Trump tried to pressure state officials to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss, a new law gives the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, authority to initiate investigations of alleged election fraud without a request from election officials. The alleged violation would have to be significant enough to change or create doubt about the outcome of an election. GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles said the agency has not initiated any investigations under the statute.