Using empirical research this study on voter fraud finds that it is rare and does not appear to influence the outcomes of elections. Fong offers two survey experiments to assess how fraud affects the legitimacy of the winner. He finds 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. He also finds 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.
Link to Publication: Voter Fraud, Voter ID, and Legitimacy (May 2, 2026)