Voter Fraud, Voter ID, and Legitimacy
Abstract
Empirical research on voter fraud finds that it is rare and does not appear to influence the outcomes of elections. However, voter fraud may still have deleterious effects even if it does not affect who wins the election. I offer two survey experiments to assess how fraud affects the legitimacy of the winner. I find that fraud undermines legitimacy, even when it occurs on such a small scale that it could not plausibly have changed the outcome of the election. I also find some evidence that voter ID laws significantly increase the winner’s legitimacy and that the effect is larger than the effect of a post-election audit.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Corruption and Economic Development
Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection
Media Influence and Politics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- American Politics Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 543–556
- Publication date
- 2 May 2026
- Language
- EN