What’s the difference between Voter Fraud and Election Fraud?
The widely-used term ‘voter fraud’ implies a voter committing fraud. But there are more than a dozen types of election irregularities (at least) that have been lumped into the term ‘voter fraud.’
There are the well-known types such as registration fraud, vote buying, absentee ballot fraud, falsification of election counts, campaign fraud, casting an ineligible ballot, double voting, voter impersonation, voter intimidation, and petition fraud. But there could be others such as lighting a ballot box on fire, or telling people how to vote at nursing homes – both of which could fall into voter intimidation or impeding the election process.
There are also different types of entities that may attempt to commit these crimes such as campaign officials, election officials, third party organizations and finally … voters.
Voters I spoke too brought up varying types of these occurrences –all wrapped in the term voter fraud – which not only makes it seem as if there is a much larger problem afoot … it perpetuates the implication that voters are constantly trying to cheat on elections.
Part 4 of the series will explain the difference between voter fraud and election fraud. The series will examine several more election fraud concerns from voters and let election, academic and law enforcement experts address those concerns.
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