It is now time for a fact check of North Carolina politics. This week, we take a look at remarks recently made by Governor Roy Cooper on CNN about the imitation of voters.
In an interview with Jake Tapper of the network, Cooper said: “You need certainty to make sure that people’s votes count and that people do not cheat. But the problem is that you do not see widespread problems with things they try. “Do not attack., such as voter ID. People do not pretend to be someone else to vote for.”
Join us now to determine the WRALs Paul Specht.
Marshall Terry: First, Paul, give us some context. Why is Governor Cooper talking about this on CNN?
Paul Specht: Cooper’s government was on CNN to talk about new election laws passed in Georgia. It contains voter ID and touches on preliminary ballots and various other things. It is possible that listeners heard more about the setback of the law than the specific details. But Jake Tapper, CNN’s anchor, urged Cooper’s government just to give its perspective as Democratic governor in the South. Cooper comes from a state that has been trying for the past decade to draft a ballot, which failed after a pressure in 2013 and finally received the final approval of the courts last year to proceed with it.
Terry: Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have enacted their own voting laws. What would it do?
Woodpecker: That’s right. This bill does not specifically address the imitation of voters or the voter ID. It’s more about things the Republicans say would streamline the election and what they say would restore confidence.
What they mean by that is that it will set new deadlines for the absence of votes, so that the ballot papers must arrive before the ballot boxes close. You’ve probably heard many Republicans worry about absentee ballots being counted after election day. Among other things, it is aimed at addressing this.
Terry: If he now goes back to what Cooper said on CNN, was he right when he suggested that imitation of voters is not a widespread problem?
Woodpecker: He’s right. Although it has happened and it is wrong to say that it never happens, he is right that it is not a widespread problem. Experts believe that it virtually does not exist. If you look at the number of reports on recent elections versus the number of ballots, which are in the millions, at some point over a ten-year period between 2004 and 2014, there were actually more people struck by lightning than the imitation of the voters committed fraud. And it blew me away. PolitiFact investigated this a few years ago and found that the law is true.
Voter turnout in particular is particularly low on the list in terms of fraud occurring. There are many types of voter fraud. And I hope that if people take one of these away, that is: voter fraud can occur in many ways. It could be people who falsify information to register to vote. It can cause people to vote twice. It can happen that people vote in one state and also in another. This can be accompanied by criminals voting if they are not allowed. But ultimately, the imitation of voters is at the bottom of the list.
Terry: As part of your reporting, you looked at why voter imitation is statistically rare. What did you find?
Woodpecker: Experts have pointed out that this is a high-risk, low-reward practice. And what I mean by that is that one person is unlikely to tip the scales of an election. The reward there is therefore minimal, but the risk is great. There are many laws around elections and who may vote, what is needed and such things. So, to create a conspiracy to tip the scales of an election, you need a lot of things to go right – and not get caught.
You’ll have to hire a bunch of people to go to the polls and pretend to be someone else. And if they do, you should hope that the people they pretend to have not voted for yet. And then you will have to hope that the people who participate in this scheme vote as you want, and to whom you actually pay it. And then you have to repeat this process on a large scale before anyone notices it. And that’s just not very likely.
And experts on this have said that it is almost an irrational thing to do. And in fact, when we got to the North Carolina Electoral Council, there was one thing they mentioned: in cases where someone on several occasions pretended to be someone else, they saw people casting votes of honor on behalf of a loved one. who just passed away. And in some cases, they do not know that it is not legal, and that you can not do it. This is more in line with what you see when it comes to imitating voters.
Terry: How did you rate what Governor Roy Cooper said?
Woodpecker: We consider it ‘mostly true’. It would have become a ‘full truth’, except that we did not want to give people the impression that it never happened. This does happen in a handful of cases. But he is right that statistically it almost never happens and that it has not been shown to lead to any election.
Terry: Thanks, Paul.
Woodpecker: Thank you.
These fact checks are a collaboration between PolitiFact and WRAL. You can hear them Wednesdays on WFAE’s Morning Edition. Want to know more about politics in North Carolina? Sign up here to have WFAE’s weekly Inside Politics newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.