“The true liar is of so mendacious a constitution that he lies at all times, and he is happy only when he is lying. Always and evermore, his gob is after lying: He lies here and lies there, he lies in secret and in public, he lies year out and he lies year in.” – The Little Tale of the True Liar, a fairy tale by Ludwig Bechstein
A German fairy tale written 180 years ago. For centuries, we have told and read these stories to our children to instill in them a sense of morality so that as they mature, they become decent human beings. Lying, saying things that are totally untrue, is one of the constant themes in these stories. Telling the truth is good, lying is bad.
Since the 2020 presidential election, our president has told the nation over and over that the election was stolen. We are hearing this year that dramatic changes need to be made to our election laws to preserve the sanctity of the vote. We need to SAVE our system of credible voting because of widespread election fraud. Let’s explore that contention and try to examine what is fact and what is fiction…or maybe even outright lies.
President Donald Trump has for over five years told the American public that the 2020 election was stolen. Most of his fervent supporters believe it, including many of my friends and family. I am sure yours as well. Sixty-two lawsuits have been filed over those years. These various claims have been exhaustively investigated and litigated. Judges, many of them Trump appointees, looked at the evidence in these claims of illegal voting and found they were without merit. Our nation’s judiciary, over and over, found there has been no proof of widespread electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Truth.
This is not to say there has never been an instance of electoral fraud. In my search for truthful data, I went to one of the most conservative think tanks in the country, The Heritage Foundation. Founded in 1973, its mission “is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
The Heritage Foundation has developed a database of proven voter fraud over the last 40 years. Surely, they must be able to corroborate Trump’s position. And yes, there have been proven instances of election-related wrongdoing. They’ve compiled a list of roughly 1,300 convicted election fraudsters since 2000.
Heritage frames this finding as a demonstration of vulnerabilities in the electoral system and uses this data to argue for policy changes such as stricter voter ID and citizenship verification requirements. So, let us break down the numbers.
Since 2000, Americans have cast an extraordinary number of ballots in federal elections. Presidential elections alone account for roughly 940 million votes between 2000 and 2024. When you add in midterm elections, the total number of ballots cast since 2000 easily exceeds 1.1 billion votes. Do the math and you get the statistical science of 0.00085 of the total number of counted ballots with proven voter fraud. Statistically microscopic, with absolutely no possibility of ever effecting any election result. Truth.
The SAVE ACT, which Trump is now vociferously pursuing before the 2026 midterm elections, is focused on requiring voters prove their U.S. citizenship before being allowed to cast a ballot. The Heritage Foundation’s database involving proven cases specifically involving non-citizen voting is astoundingly even more infinitesimal than overall voter fraud. There are 68 such cases cited over four decades. You do the math.
Now, let’s talk about mail-in voting. That is another part of Trump’s attack on our electoral process. Mail-in voting is legal in all states, with each state setting its own rules for that type of absentee voting. The U.S. has a long history of voting by mail. Large-scale use of mail ballots originated during the Civil War, when some soldiers were allowed to vote remotely for obvious reasons. Mail voting is used widely around the world, with more than 30 countries allowing voters to cast ballots by mail. Mail ballots are widespread across the United States. For example, in 2024 alone, the United States Postal Service processed over 99.2 million mail ballots.
According to the Brookings Institute, a centrist think tank founded in 1916, cases of mail voting fraud are very rare, accounting for only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast. This is about four cases of verified election fraud out of every 10 million votes. Universal vote-by-mail voting systems comprise the smallest percentage of the already microscopic percentage of election voting fraud. Truth.
I don’t expect you, the reader, to take my word for this. Do the research yourself if you have any doubts about my statistics. I purposely did not rely on “liberal” think tanks for these facts. I actually went to one of the most conservative, folks who are compiling this data to “prove” voter fraud. What I found was eye-opening. This is what all of us need to do before the next election. Turn off your Fox News or MSnow, turn off the pundits and talking heads that want to tell you what to think. Do the research. Find the truth.
Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1 of our U.S. Constitution reads as follows: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as the Places of chusing Senators.” This says something that should end all arguments before they start: States decide how elections work, and Congress can step in to change those rules if it sees fit. The president of the United States? Not mentioned at all in the U.S. Constitution.
It has been said that there is seduction in repetition. That is how a lie becomes “the truth.” Repeat the lie long enough and it becomes the “truth.” President Trump is guilty of that. I pray that we all do not become the seducer’s victims.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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