April 12, 2007 1:02PM # Scant Evidence? That’s Voter Fraud Calling By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE One of the more clever country song titles I ever heard was *If the Phone Don’t Ring, You’ll Know It’s Me*. That’s something like the predicament of searchers after the menace of voter fraud, who can’t seem to find much of it. The *New York Times* today reports that “[scant evidence](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print)” exists of a significant problem. Voter fraud is the idea that individuals might vote multiple times, in multiple jurisdictions, or despite not being qualified. This is distinct from election fraud, which is corruption of broader voting or vote-counting processes. While voter fraud (and/​or voter error) certainly happens, it is apparently on a trivial scale. It probably has not changed any election results, and probably will not do so if ordinary protective measures are maintained. This is important because voter fraud has been used as an argument for subjecting our nation’s citizens to a national ID. The Carter-Baker Commission found little evidence of voter fraud, but [went ahead and called for adopting REAL ID](https://www.cato.org/2006/10/11/voter-fraud-and-other-political-facts/) as a voter identification card. One of the Commission’s members apparently [retreated from that conclusion](https://www.cato.org/2007/03/20/real-id-news-and-views/), having learned more about REAL ID. For proponents of a national ID, if the phone’s not ringing, that’s voter fraud calling. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).