With the 2024 election now just over six months away, amidst lingering questions about the security of the ballot, a surprising number of Americans are willing to cheat. A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds 28% would engage in some sort of voter fraud in order to help their preferred candidate. The number was consistent across voters of all parties, and included everything from filling out or signing mail-in ballots for family members (18%), to voting in two different states or paying someone for their vote (10%).
These numbers suggest that not only is voter fraud real, but nearly one-third of Americans either don't understand what it is or are okay with it. Steve Munisteri, former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, says voter fraud is as old as elections themselves. "There are examples going back decades," he tells KTRH. "There was evidence of fraudulent activity here in Texas back in the 1960s during the LBJ era, there were problems in Illinois with the (Chicago Mayor Richard) Daley machine."
"So it's not a question of whether you will get people to cheat, the question is whether you will prevent people from cheating," he continues.
Munisteri says he saw evidence of voter fraud himself as far back as the 1970s when he worked as a voter fraud investigator in Texas. "I personally went out and knocked on doors of voters that were listed as having voted, and found there was nobody there by that name or they had moved years ago," he tells KTRH. "So illegal voting does occur, and the protections like voter ID that the state of Texas has put in place, I believe, have helped mitigate the problem."
While tougher election integrity laws are one obvious solution to this growing issue of voter fraud, Munisteri also thinks our nation is in need of a new civics lesson. "I believe there is a larger cultural problem, with how the younger generations are being taught," he says. "We should get back to teaching young people and having society adopt the concept that there are rights and wrongs...like you shouldn't shoplift, you shouldn't cheat on your tests, and you also shouldn't cheat in elections."
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