“Just saw the vote tabulations. There is NO WAY Biden got 80,000,000 votes!!! This was a 100% RIGGED ELECTION.” Incumbent President Donald Trump tweeted this out on the 26th of November, along with many controversial tweets and retweets. After the tense 2020 election, voter fraud has been a hot-button issue for all Americans. There is no doubt that both sides believe the other to be irredeemably wrong— in an election that determines the future of the nation, the question of voter fraud is one of the utmost importance. With the President taking this election to the courts, Americans are divided on the morality of the situation. However, based on the evidence behind voter fraud, there is logical and bipartisan rationale for why the President should be allowed to litigate this election without obstruction. 

Voter fraud is defined as illegal interference with an individual’s voting ballot such as duplicate voting, vote-selling, voting in a district one no longer lives in, participating in the election as an illegal citizen or a felon, and more. In this election, there have been accusations of illegal immigrants participating, people duplicating votes by voting as deceased people, and ballot harvesting in which a party inputs a fake value for the number of ballots sent in. The President believes that the Democrats, both voters and the party, treat him unfairly; thus leading them to rig the election with the help of the mainstream media.

So does voter fraud exist? There is a wealth of evidence suggesting that voter fraud exists, at least in individual cases. In 2019, a 29-year old April Atilano was charged with 12 felony counts for altering the parties, mainly to Democrat, on various voter registration cards for a municipal election. In the 2018 Mayoral race, Mayor O’Caña’s win was thrown out by a court after over 158 illegal ballots were discovered. In the two weeks of testimony, issues from mail-in ballot fraud to bribes were discussed in a heated court case that showed the true damage of voter fraud. The Heritage Foundation’s database of voter fraud currently lists approximately 1,300 cases of voter fraud (it should be noted that this statistic does not distinguish between individual and larger-scale cases). It is clear from evidence that individual cases of voter fraud exist. However, there are other factors to consider as well.

Scale is an important factor to consider when dealing with voter fraud. According to researchers, voter fraud is incredibly rare and happens on a very small scale, small enough to cause little harm to an election. Databases such as the Brennan Center claim that voter fraud is very rare— an American is more likely to get struck by lightning than commit voter fraud. Most vote-counting issues are minute and happen due to technological issues. Even the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a part of Homeland Security, encourages people to have trust in the electoral process and the security involved. They added how most—if not all—falsified ballots are corrected very swiftly and taken care of.

Current evidence suggests that it is unlikely for voter fraud to exist on a large scale, yet, numerous individual and group cases of voter fraud have occurred in the past, casting doubt on the integrity of America’s election processes. As one of the most polarizing elections in American history, it would be wise to allow the President to see through his case in the court. If the court finds that there was an unfair advantage for the Democratic party, then our voting system’s integrity would be at risk, and we could avert a serious danger. If it is not true, though, the President’s reputation will be damaged and his status will be at risk for needlessly prolonging the election process. Regardless of the result, those who have acted unjustly and deceitfully in this election will be exposed. There is no harm in finding the truth— without it, speculations will continue to drive the country in two.