(NewsNation) — Before the polls have even closed on Election Day, former President Donald Trump has accused Democrats and noncitizen voters of “cheating.”
But is voter fraud so widespread it should warrant urgent concern? Conservative commentator Ann Coulter and Cenk Uygur, co-creator of left-leaning program “The Young Turks”, joined “Dan Abrams Live” to discuss.
“It’s politically stupid. It’s not going to help him. I basically agree with you,” Coulter said. “But for the sake of argument, I do have one, one little point I’d like to make about this, and that is, okay, Trump shouldn’t be saying it, but let’s say somebody else is saying it … I’m sick of hearing all the time that there is no vote fraud.”
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She argued that “nobody’s looking for the vote fraud,” citing the University of Michigan student and Chinese national who was arrested and charged on Nov. 30 for illegally casting a ballot — after he called the Secretary of State’s Office and asked for it back.
Coulter points to it as an obvious sign of a larger fraud problem, calling for voter ID and only one day to vote in-person.
But Uygur says actual cases of fraud are incredibly infrequent.
“So, Heritage Foundation, [a] very right-wing think tank, the guys who did Project 2025 looked into voter fraud over a period of, I think, about 20 years. And they did find it … totally statistically insignificant,” Uygur said.
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Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, analyzed that data and found the share of reported cases of fraud over the past 13 to 38 years across several key swing states is less than 1 percent.
Any widespread voter fraud is unlikely due to the decentralized nature of American elections, researchers say. There are more than 10,000 independent voting jurisdictions in the U.S., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Different counties, which typically administer elections, list different names in downballot races.
Uygur pointed to Trump’s accusations as a sign of weakness in his campaign, telling NewsNation: “It’s a kind of desperate thing that losing candidates do.”
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.
