WASHINGTON – The Heritage Foundation has long warned about the threats a universal mail-in ballot system poses to the integrity of America’s elections and the public’s faith in the democratic system. To illustrate the vulnerabilities in the system, Heritage created a database that exposes the types of voter fraud that can and do occur across the country.

The database is not a comprehensive list of all instances of voter fraud, as explicitly noted on the database website. Unfortunately, the database has been widely mischaracterized in recent media reports as an exhaustive compilation of all instances of voter fraud throughout the United States. This persistent mischaracterization only serves to mislead the American people on what is already a controversial, politically charged topic.

Today, Hans von Spakovsky, manager of Heritage’s Election Law Reform Initiative and former Federal Election Commission official, set the record straight regarding the purpose of the database and the recent mischaracterizations of the report:

The Heritage Election Fraud Database presents only a sampling of recent, proven instances of election fraud from across the country. This database is not an exhaustive comprehensive list. It does not capture all cases and certainly does not capture reported instances that are not investigated or prosecuted. The reported cases in the database represent just the tip of the iceberg, given many other potential cases of fraud that election officials and prosecutors have failed to investigate or prosecute. The database demonstrates the vulnerabilities in the election system and the many ways fraud is, and can be, committed. In addition to diluting the votes of legitimate voters, fraud can have an impact in close elections, and we have many close elections in this country.

Learn about vulnerabilities in the mail-in ballot system HERE.