Election officials — and reporters like me — have spent years explaining that voter fraud is incredibly rare. There aren’t millions of noncitizens registering and casting ballots. Voter impersonation is extremely uncommon. And there’s no legion of dead voters.
We know that because voting systems are designed with checks and balances to make it pretty hard to cheat. But most of that isn’t obvious or even visible to voters.
So with false claims of voter fraud already swirling ahead of November’s pivotal election, I’m here to walk you through the basics of the voting systems in three key battleground states — Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania — and how four essential elements of our election system prevent widespread voter fraud.
Getting on the voter roll
Georgia asks for quite a bit of information to register as a voter: name, address, date of birth and either the number on your driver’s license or state ID if you have one, or the last four digits of your Social Security number if you don’t. Sign the form swearing — under penalty of perjury — that you’re a citizen and eligible to vote, and you’re good to go.
Election officials will then check your information against government databases, which typically verify your identity and citizenship. If officials can’t find corroborating information, you’ll be asked to prove your citizenship with a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate or similar document before you are fully registered to vote.
Staying on the roll
Georgia checks its voter rolls against lists of people who have died or been convicted of a felony, while also routinely checking in with voters who change their address with the U.S. Postal Service or cancel their Georgia driver’s license.
They also use the interstate Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to find voters who die elsewhere, or move and register out of state.
Casting a ballot
You must show a photo ID to vote. If you choose to vote by mail, you’ll have to request a ballot with your driver’s license number or a photocopy of your photo ID.
All ballots are fed into tabulators to be tallied, totals are reconciled (ensuring that there are an equal number of both ballots cast and voters who voted) and the results are driven to the county election office.
Checking the count
After the results are tallied, the state conducts a risk-limiting audit by physically counting randomly selected batches of ballots and hand-counting them. The state also runs all the ballot images through a computer program that tallies the results.
Getting on the voter roll
Arizona needs your name, address, date of birth, signature and driver’s license number if you have one, or the last four digits of your Social Security number if you don’t. Without those, you’ll have to show more ID to vote…