By: Jonathan Teal
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – President Trump has continually stated that voter fraud is a huge issue in our country.
But, George Shelton, who works for a public affairs firm called Company Politics, said the impact of voter fraud on an election is not as big of an issue as President Trump claims.
“My position is that voter fraud is nowhere near as much of an issue as some people claim it is.”
U of A student Elijah Conley is voting in his first presidential election, and he said voter fraud rarely happens, but it hurts the country’s election process.
“Any attempt to participate in voter fraud is undermining our democracy, and we all should be concerned with that.”
Shelton said President Trump created a commission centered around finding voter fraud, but it was decommissioned within a year because there were so few cases.
He also said when a candidate claims voter fraud, it causes two things to happen. First, the candidate’s supporters feel reassured they chose the right person to elect. Next, it casts illegitimacy on the opponent.
But, Shelton said claiming voter fraud is still not an effective strategy to help a candidate win an election.
“Stealing an election by means of voter fraud is exponentially harder than other means that they’re using to steal an election now.”
Shelton said there has been only one case of voter fraud in the last four years. It was during the 2000 election in North Carolina. A Republican candidate was caught ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting is when a candidate gets people to send in absentee ballots but did not properly notarize the ballots.