The Impact of Voter Fraud Claims on Voter Registration Reform Legislation

Abstract

IN RECENT YEARS, CONCERNS ABOUT VOTER FRAUD have grown louder, leading to calls for legislation to require voter identification and citizenship documentation. Such legislation has a cost, as experience shows it reduces the turnout of eligible voters. Is there a sudden epidemic of fraud? No. The available evidence shows that voter fraud is rare in the United States. This recent storm of concern about fraud is best understood as a partisan strategy to constrict the electorate. This is not a new phenomenon: it dates back at least as far as the Progressive Era imposition of personal registration to combat alleged fraud. Time and again, concerns about the danger of fraud have been raised to defeat legislation designed to expand access to the vote. This article will demonstrate how the pattern of using claims of fraud to constrict electoral participation played out in three late twentieth-century efforts to pass federal legislation to make voter registration easier.