.jpg)
Theelection denial movement in the United States is a widespread false belief that elections in the United States are rigged and stolen throughelection fraud by the opposing political party. Adherents of the movement are referred to aselection deniers. Election fraudconspiracy theories have spread online and throughconservative conferences, community events, and door-to-doorcanvassing. Since the2020 United States presidential election,many Republican politicians have sought elective office or taken legislative steps to address what they assert is weak election integrity leading to widespread fraudulent elections, though no evidence of systemic election fraud has come to light and many studies have found that it is extremely rare.
The movement came to prominence afterDonald Trump was defeated in the 2020 United States presidential election. Trump had a history of questioning elections before he ran for office, notably the 2012 reelection ofBarack Obama. He grew the movement among his supporters by making consistently false allegations of fraud during the2016, and in particular the 2020 presidential election. With these false and unsubstantiated claims, Trump and his associatessought to overturn the 2020 election ofJoe Biden; he and others have been indicted on federal and state charges involvingelection subversion. Trump's false allegations came to be known as his "big lie". Trump has since endorsed only Republican candidates who agree the 2020 election had been stolen from him, and did not commit to accepting the results of the2024 presidential election, should he lose. By April 2024, Trump had embracedmail-in balloting andearly voting, which he had for years vilified as corrupt and contributors to his 2020 election loss.
Democrats have also engaged in this movement, although to a smaller extent,[1] with some contesting the2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the2024 United States presidential election, alleging they were stolen by Republicans.
Going back decades, some influential Republicans who have expressed concerns aroundelection security have been accused of using the fear of voter fraud as a pretext forvoter suppression.[2][3]
A notable quote that has been used as evidence of bad faith efforts to address voter fraud comes fromPaul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservativeHeritage Foundation, who said in a 1980 speech, "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."[3] Aspects of election denialism have been noted to relate to thegreat replacement theory,[4] which has been embraced by some Republican politicians to demonstrate their loyalty to Donald Trump.[5] Trump has falsely claimed that Democrats are encouraging illegal immigration to allow noncitizens to vote and create a permanent Democratic majority.[6]
Election experts have found thatelection fraud is vanishingly rare, not systemic, and not at levels that could have impacted a presidential election.[7][8][9] In response toDonald Trump's 2016 claims of millions of fraudulent votes, theBrennan Center in 2017 evaluated voter fraud data and arrived at a fraud rate of 0.0003–0.0025%.[10] That year, the center also analyzedthe Heritage Foundation's database of voter fraud as tiny, reaching back to 1948, and one in which the vast majority of cases would still occur under the Foundation's proposed election reforms.[11]
Professor Andrew Smolar and Dr. Geoffrey Kabaservice believe this election denial movement began with theTea Party after Obama's election, citing theBirtherism conspiracy theory as helping to dissolve trust in institutions and objective truth.[12][13] Other dates that have been suggested for the start of this movement include 2012,[14] 2016,[15] and 2020.[16]
Analyst Chris Sautter argues the movement is the latest stage of wrangling about election rules that began in the 1960s regarding severe restrictions to stop Blacks from voting in most of the South. TheVoting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discrimination and enabled the federal government to block new restrictions. During the Reagan presidency in the 1980s, theRepublican National Committee (RNC) launched "ballot security" and "voter integrity" campaigns to reduce what it alleged to be voter fraud. They focused on minority communities with large Democratic majorities. They stationed off-duty police officers in conspicuous locations near polling places, distributed leaflets suggesting voters could be subjected to prosecution, and made unsupported challenges of registered voters. Federal courts concluded the techniques were designed to frighten minority voters in violation of theVoting Rights Act of 1965, and Republican Party officials were forced to sign a consent decree agreeing to stop. In 2013, theU.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its ruling onShelby County v. Holder, which enabled Republican legislatures in at least 20 states to impose new obstacles for the 2018 elections.[17][18]
After Obama was declared the winner of theElectoral College while still trailing in the popular vote count early on election night 2012, Trump tweeted the election was a "total sham" because Obama "lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election" and "the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy", adding: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty."[19] Final election results showed Obama won the popular vote by nearly five million ballots.[20] In the2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote by nearly three million ballots.[21] ABC News writerTerrence Smith described Trump's statements as the first example showing a broader playbook of election denial.[14]
During the2016 Republican primaries, Trump alleged, without evidence, that his opponent SenatorTed Cruz stole theIowa presidential caucuses after he had won them.[14] During the2016 presidential campaign, Trump asserted that the only way he could lose was if there was election fraud.[22] Trump political advisorRoger Stone created a "Stop the Steal" organization in 2016 in the event Trump lost; it was revived after Trump's loss in 2020.[23]
Trump claimed, without evidence, that millions of undocumented migrants voted illegally forHillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, costing him the popular vote victory.[24] As a result, Trump established anelection integrity commission in May 2017, but the commission was disbanded several months later, with memberMatthew Dunlap, theMaine secretary of state, writing to commission chairMike Pence and vice chairKris Kobach that, contrary to public statements by Trump and Kobach, the commission did not find "substantial" voter fraud.[25] Dunlap alleged the true purpose of the commission was to create a pretext to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote. Critics said the commission's intent was to disenfranchise or deter legal voters.[26] Kobach, then theKansas secretary of state, had a history of making false or unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud to advocate for voting restrictions.[27][28] The commission did not find a single instance of a non-citizen voting.[29]
Although Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the 2016 election, she has referred to Trump as "an illegitimate president."[30] In a 2019 speech in Los Angeles she spoke about the report onRussian interference in the 2016 election saying "You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you."[31] In a 2020 interview withThe Atlantic, she maintained that the election was "not on the level".[32]
Donald Trump complained of widespread voter fraud leading up to and following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which was widely debunked. Having never conceded, Trump used thisallegation of fraud as justification to try multiple times to subvert the election results and remain in office. Trump has demanded those seeking his endorsement to support his unfounded allegations of fraud. Many of those involved in the plots, including theriot on January 6, 2021, have been convicted, charged or are under investigation for crimes such as insurrection. Three witnesses close to Trump testified to theJanuary 6 committee that they were aware Trump acknowledged he had lost within days after the election.[33]
Trump did not commit to accepting the results of the2024 U.S. presidential election if he were to lose.[35][36] Trump's nieceMary L. Trump and former Republican RepresentativeAnthony Gonzalez, among others, predicted that he would once again deny the results of a loss and try to steal the election.[37][38] According to NPR, the continuation of election denial tactics by Trump for the 2024 election was likely.[39] In the lead up to the 2024 election, the Republican Party made false claims of massive "noncitizen voting" by immigrants in an attempt to delegitimize the election if Trump had lost.[4] States found very few noncitizens on their voting rolls, and in the extremely rare instances of votes cast by noncitizens they are legal immigrants who are often mistaken that they have a right to vote. An election fraud database maintained by the conservativeHeritage Foundation in 2024 indicated 85 instances of irregularities among noncitizens since 2002.[29][40][41][42]
Many Republicans, notably Trump, long criticized "ballot harvesting" and the early voting it enables as rife with fraud and cheating, encouraging their voters to vote only at polling places on election day. The 2022Dinesh D'Souza film2000 Mules was centered on false allegations of illegal ballot harvesting by unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with theDemocratic Party to commit election fraud. After disappointing Republican results in the 2020 and 2022 elections, some Trump-aligned organizations such asTurning Point USA recognized they needed to adopt similar ballot collection methods for the 2024 elections, which they named "ballot chasing". Turning Point said it would raise money to create "the largest and most impactful ballot chasing operation the movement has ever seen". Kari Lake, who refused to concede her loss in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, said she would launch "the largest ballot chasing operation in our nation's history".Media Matters reported in March 2024 thatLara Trump, the new co-chair of theRepublican National Committee, had said on a recent podcast that the RNC would launch a "legal ballot harvesting" effort.[43][44][45] Lara Trump said on the same podcast that "I'm gonna say 75 million-plus Americans who still are like, what the hell happened in 2020? They didn't get any answers." She baselessly claimed that the odds of mail-in ballots giving Biden swing state victories was "one in one quadrillion to the fourth power."[45] After insisting for several years that mail-in balloting is "totally corrupt" and contributed to his 2020 election loss, by April 2024 Donald Trump and the RNC were encouraging his supporters to adopt mail-in and early voting.[46][47][48][49]
During the campaign, Trump often referred to "election integrity" to allude to his continuing lie that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, as well as baseless predictions of future mass election fraud. As he did during the 2020 election cycle, without evidence Trump told supporters that Democrats might try to rig the 2024 election. Many Republicans believe a conspiracy theory claiming Democrats engage in systematic election fraud to steal elections, insisting election integrity is a major concern, though voting fraud is extremely rare. By 2022, Republican politicians, conservative cable news outlets andtalk radio echoed a narrative of former Trump advisorSteve Bannon that "if Democrats don't cheat, they don't win". Appearing with Trump in April 2024, House SpeakerMike Johnson baselessly suggested "potentially hundreds of thousands of votes" might be cast by undocumented migrants; as president, Trump falsely asserted that millions of votes cast by undocumented migrants had deprived him of a popular vote victory in the 2016 election.Politico reported in June 2022 that the RNC sought to deploy an "army" of poll workers and attorneys inswing states who could refer what they deemed questionable ballots in Democratic voting precincts to a network of friendly district attorneys to challenge. In April 2024, RNC co-chair Lara Trump said the party had the ability to install poll workers who could handle ballots, rather than merely observe polling places. She also said that the 2018 expiration of the1982 consent decree prohibiting the RNC from intimidation of minority voters "gives us a great ability" in the election. Trump's political operation said in April 2024 that it planned to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers to polling places across battleground states, with an "election integrity hotline" for poll watchers and voters to report alleged voting irregularities. Trump told a rally audience in December 2023 that they needed to "guard the vote" in Democratic-run cities. He had complained that his 2020 campaign was not adequately prepared to challenge his loss in courts; some critics said his 2024 election integrity effort is actually intended to gather allegations to overwhelm the election resolution process should he challenge the 2024 election results.Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who defeated every Trump court challenge after the 2020 election, remarked, "I think they are going to have a massive voter suppression operation and it is going to involve very, very large numbers of people and very, very large numbers of lawyers."[50]
Days after the RNC voted Lara Trump andMichael Whatley to lead the organization, formerOANN anchorChristina Bobb was named to head the RNC election integrity program which Lara Trump said occupied "an entire wing of the building". A staunch Trump advocate, Bobb was involved inattempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and promoted the false allegation that the election had been stolen from Trump by fraud. Bobb and seventeen other Republicans were eachindicted on nine counts of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy in April 2024 for their alleged involvement in theTrump fake electors plot in Arizona.[51][52][45][53] In April 2024, the RNC released arobocall script falsely alleging Democrats committed "massive fraud" in the 2020 election. The script added, "If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn't even an American citizen."[54]
By May 2024, election deniers in support of Trump had moved closer to the GOP mainstream. A report released on May 21, 2024, by States United Action found that "170 representatives and senators out of 535 lawmakers overall can be categorized as election deniers" and that two Senate candidates and 17 House candidates were on the ballot to join them. By 2024, the prevalence of election deniers was noted to have increased among top Republican officials in the RNC.[55] In May, the Associated Press reported that under Lara Trump the RNC has "sought alliances with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and alt-right advocates the party had previously kept at arm's length." It also reported that Lara Trump supported a nationwide policy of not counting any ballots after Election Day, which was noted to be illegal.[56] Trump and several Republicans have stated they will not accept the results of the 2024 election if they believe they are "unfair".[36]
Following Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, anAP-NORC poll found that Republican confidence in the accuracy of elections jumped and that a majority were confident in the election results after Trump's win.[57] Despite Trump's win,Reuters reported that the election denial movement had not gone away and had strengthened in certain areas of the country. It reported that several advocates continued to push for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which critics alleged would cement Republican electoral advantages and lay the groundwork for discrediting future elections if preferred candidates lose. Several 2020 election deniers were also nominated for Trump administration roles, includingPam Bondi for U.S. Attorney General andKash Patel for FBI Director.[58]
Following Trump's victory, some Harris supporters onX sharedelection denial conspiracy theories, claiming that millions of ballots were "left uncounted" and there being something "not right" with the election. Such posts falsely claiming Trump "stole" the election peaked at noon the day after at 94,000 posts per hour, with many receiving amplification and gaining over a million views each. According toGordon Crovitz, the CEO of the media rating systemNewsGuard, the phrase "Trump cheated" received 92,100 mentions on the platform from midnight until the Wednesday morning after.[59] Besides the claims from Harris' supporters, some Trump supporters baselessly claimed the disparity between other years, the 2020 election, and a then-incomplete 2024 voting total indicated voter fraud in the 2020 election.[60][61]
One major basis these false claims were founded upon was a claim that Biden won 20 million more votes in his prior election bid than Harris had in hers, at the time.[60][61] American journalist and conspiracy theoristWayne Madsen commented onThreads: "I'm beginning to believe our election wasmassively hacked just like happened a few weeks ago in the Republic of Georgia."[62] At the time these fallacies were disseminated, votes were still being counted in many states.[59][63] An estimate around the time using the Associated Press vote percentage total found that 16.2 million votes across twenty states and D.C. had yet to be counted. Statistical analysis of voting asserted that despite continued counting, the projections were already set and new ballots would not sway the outcomes of any of the states and D.C.[63] TheCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency directorJen Easterly refuted the false claims, and wrote in a statement that there was "no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure".[59][62] Another false claim allegesMusk used the satellite internet constellationStarlink to change the results of the election.Chief technology officer Chip Trowbridge of voting system manufacturer Clear Ballot dismissed the claim and added no machine used to scan voting ballots have any network connection whatsoever.[64]
TheRepublican Party's efforts to disrupt voting after the 2024 United States presidential election involve a series of coordinated actions at the state and national level byRepublican Party officials and their allies that targeted election infrastructure – includingvoting rights andelection security – as well as political opponents.
After the2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, Democratic candidateStacey Abrams lost to Republican candidateBrian Kemp – who, asGeorgia Secretary of State, administered the election – and claimed that the election was "stolen" from her as well as claiming the election was "rigged" and "not a free or fair election,"[65] on the grounds that voter registrations had been improperly canceled and polling places in poor and minority neighborhoods had been improperly closed. TheWashington Post reported that "more than 200 polling places" across Georgia were closed in the 2018 election, "primarily in poor and minority neighborhoods. Voters reported long lines, malfunctioning voting machines and other problems that delayed or thwarted voting in those areas."[66] TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution found that "precinct closures and longer distances likely prevented an estimated 54,000 to 85,000 voters from casting ballots" on the 2018 Election Day[67] – less than Kemp's margin of victory. According to Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California at Irvine, "there is no question that Georgia in general and Brian Kemp in particular took steps to make it harder for people to register and vote, and that those people tended to skew Democratic."[68] In 2022, Kemp again defeated Abrams, by a larger margin; Abrams conceded on election night.
In addition to making false claims about the previous election a centerpiece of her2022 Arizona gubernatorial campaign,Kari Lake refused to concede her loss, traveling the country into 2023 to promote her election fraud allegations amid speculation she was considering a run for Senate or being named as Trump's running mate in 2024. Her several lawsuits challenging her loss were thrown out, as has a lawsuit to stop using electronic machines.[69][70] A July 2023 suit filed by RepublicanMaricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, alleging Lake defamed him by claiming he had rigged the election against her, was in December 2023 cleared to proceed to trial.[71] Lake was the Republican nominee in the2024 United States Senate election in Arizona.
Conservative news outlets such asFox News,Newsmax andOANN promoted false election fraud allegations during the weeks following the 2020 election, including conspiracy theories that voting machines had been rigged to favor Biden. Voting machine companiesDominion Voting Systems andSmartmatic filed defamation suits against those three cable networks, some of their employees and others. Fox News agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion in April 2023 after it was revealed that top on-air personalities and executives knew the allegations were false but continued to promote them anyway.[72][73][74]
An October 2022Washington Post analysis found that 51% of Republican nominees for House, Senate and key statewide offices in nearly every state that year denied or questioned the 2020 presidential election outcome.[75]Secretaries of state oversee elections in states. In 2022, nearly one in three Republican candidates for those offices supported overturning the 2020 presidential election results.[76][77] TheAmerica First Secretary of State Coalition, co-founded and led by Nevada RepublicanJim Marchant, was created in 2021 to promote election deniers for secretary of state in the2022 United States secretary of state elections.[78] All but one of nearly twenty candidates the group endorsed in 2022 lost in the general election.[79][80] According to analysis by the nonpartisan States United Action, election denialism cost Republican candidates from 2.3 to 3.7 percentage points of votes in the 2022 midterm elections.[81] Trump made his election fraud claims alitmus test for Republican candidates and the heart of his platform.[82] AfterMike Johnson won theOctober 2023 Speaker of the United States House election, David A. Graham posited that only members of the election denial movement had a chance to win the speakership with only Republican votes.[83]
As of August 2023, a poll found that almost 70% of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents continued to believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected in 2020.[84] In theexit poll for the2022 U.S. House of Representatives elections, 35% of voters surveyed answered "No" when asked "Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?", and 93% of those who did not believe Biden was legitimately elected voted for Republican House candidates.[85] Of the 61% of 2022 midterm voters who answered "Yes" to the same question, 74% voted for Democratic House candidates while 24% voted for Republican House candidates.[85]
In the same poll, 80% of all voters answered "Very confident" or "Somewhat confident" when asked if they were "Confident your state's elections are fair/accurate?", 70% of voters who said they were "Very confident" voted for Democratic House candidates while 62% of "Somewhat confident" voters, 78% of "Not very confident" voters, and 85% of "Not at all confident" voters voted for Republican House candidates.[85] Likewise, in the exit poll for the2016 presidential election, 83% of all voters were "Confident" when asked the same question, 68% of "Very confident" voters voted forHillary Clinton, while 61% of "Somewhat confident" voters and 65% of "Not confident" voters voted for Trump.[86] In the exit poll for the2020 presidential election, 86% of all voters were "Confident" in the vote count, with 52% and 56% of "Very confident" or "Somewhat confident" voters respectively voting for Biden respectively and 63% of "Not confident" voters voting for Trump.[87]
However, in the exit poll for the2024 presidential election, only 67% of voters were "Confident" in the vote count, 84% of "Very confident" voters voted forKamala Harris, and 59% of "Somewhat confident" voters, 82% of "Not very confident" voters, and 80% of "Not at all confident" voters voted for Trump.[88] In the exit poll for the2018 U.S. House of Representatives elections, when asked "Which concerns you more? Some people will: cast illegitimate votes or be prevented from voting" (i.e.electoral fraud orvoter suppression), 53% of voters said "Be prevented from voting" while 36% said "Cast illegitimate votes", and 78% of "Cast illegitimate votes" voters voted for Republican House candidates.[89] After also asking questions about theMueller special counsel investigation ofRussian interference in the 2016 elections, the 2018 exit poll asked "Has the government done enough to protect this election?" (i.e.election security); 50% of voters saying "No", 38% saying "Yes", and 71% voters who believed the election administration was secure voted for Republican House candidates.[89]
Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist who strongly opposesTrumpism, wrote in April 2022 that she asked Trump voters infocus groups why they continue to believe the election was stolen from him. She perceived that for many it was a hard-to-explain tribal response to a message that is echoed throughout the participants' social and media environment.[90] Analysis of polls by Charles Stewart, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, shows that there are deep ideological roots involving belief in conspiracies, racial tensions and religion as well as partisanship. He argues:
Among Republicans, conspiracism has a potent effect on embracing election denialism, followed by racial resentment. Among independents, the strongest influences on denialism areChristian nationalism and racial resentment. And, although election denialism is rare among Democrats, what variation does exist is mostly explained by levels of racial resentment.[91]
Some election experts and historians contend that, left unabated, election denial could further reduceconcessions by losing candidates, disrupt thepeaceful transfers of power andweaken or even dismantle American democracy.[92][93] Lisa Bryant, a political science professor atCalifornia State University, Fresno, warned of the erosion of trust in the democratic process and the institutions it produces, which might lead to a breakdown in therule of law if the government (and by extension the laws they create) are not viewed as legitimate.[94][95]Michigan State University law professor Frank Ravitch writes that "Election fraud is a context where lies intersect with anti-democratic tendencies."[96] TheBrennan Center for Justice states that "election denial poses an ongoing and evolving threat."[97]
Following Trump's 2020 loss amid his false allegations of fraud, Republican lawmakers initiated asweeping effort to make voting laws more restrictive in several states across the country and to take control of the administrative management of elections at the state and local level.[98][99][100][101] Some planned to deploy an "army" of poll workers and lawyers to challenge votes in Democratic districts.[102][103][104]
The Washington Post reported in June 2024 on indications that county-level Republicans in swing states might be preparing to challenge and delay their certifications of voting results in 2024. Such delays might cause a state to miss deadlines that ensure its electoral college votes are counted in Washington on January 6, 2025. In four state elections since 2020, county election officials withheld certifications, citing mistrust in voting machines or ballot errors, though they could not produce evidence of actual voting fraud; the certifications proceeded after state interventions, which included warnings of potential (and in Arizona, actual) criminal charges. Voting rights activists were concerned that the continuing false allegations of election fraud since 2020 might lead to social unrest if efforts to delay certifications at the local level were overruled by state officials or courts. The failure of a state to have its electoral college votes counted on January 6 could result in neither presidential candidate reaching the minimum 270 electoral votes, causing the election to be thrown to the House. In that scenario, the election outcome would be determined by a simple majority count of state legislature representations; Republicans controlled 28 of 50 legislatures in 2024.[105]
Dennis Montgomery promoted widely debunked 'evidence' for both thebirther conspiracy theory movement and the 2020 election denial movement (among other far-right conspiracies), was frequently widely cited by supporters of President Trump's efforts to overturn the election.[106]
_(cropped).jpg)
By 2022,My Pillow founderMike Lindell had become a prominent figure in the movement, spending millions of his money for conferences, activist networks, a media platform, legal actions and research. Through his My Pillow advertising placements, he became a major financial backer of an expanding network of right-wing podcasters and influencers.[107] Lindell's legal firm said in an October 2023 court filing that Lindell wasin arrears by millions of dollars in fees and that the firm could no longer afford to represent him, which Lindell confirmed.[108] Organizations funded bydark money have met quietly with officials in Republican-controlled states to create an incubator of policies that would restrict ballot access and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in elections. Led bythe Heritage Foundation, the groups include theHonest Elections Project, which is among a network of conservative organizations associated withLeonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in theFederalist Society.[109]
TheConservative Partnership Institute (CPI) was founded in 2017 by former Republican senator and Heritage Foundation presidentJim DeMint. CPI employsMark Meadows andJeffrey Clark and has been described as the "nerve center" for theMAGA movement. CPI's funding increased from $1.7 million 2017 to $45 million in 2021. CPI includes the Election Integrity Network, led byCleta Mitchell.[110][111][112][113] Mitchell was a Trump advisor after the 2020 election who participated in theTrump–Raffensperger phone call during which Trump pressured theGeorgia secretary of state to "find" ballots that would secure him a victory in the state. Trump and 18 others, including Meadows and Clark, were indicted in theGeorgia election racketeering prosecution for allegedly running a "criminal racketeering enterprise." Mitchell was one of 39 individuals a special grand jury recommended for indictment on multiple charges, though prosecutorFani Willis declined to charge her.[114] By 2022, Mitchell said she was "taking the lessons we learned in 2020" as she held seminars around the country to recruit election deniers to monitor elections because "the only way [Democrats] win is to cheat."[115]
In 2022, theBrennan Center for Justice atNew York University Law School identified several individuals or groups that together were spending tens of millions to support election deniers in that year's midterm elections. These included the billionaire coupleRichard and Elizabeth Uihlein; Trump'sSave America PAC; andHome Depot co-founderBernard Marcus. Former Overstock.com CEOPatrick Byrne said he spent $20 million to convince people that the 2020 election was stolen; he was also a major funder of the2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit that sought but failed to find election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Byrne has been the largest funder of The America Project, which pushes election denial narratives. That group was founded by former Trump national security advisorMichael Flynn in 2021, with an agenda that includes undermining trust in elections.[116][117] Byrne, Flynn and others attended a December 2020 Oval Office meeting with Trump to discuss ways to overturn the president's election loss.[118]
Oracle Corporation founderLarry Ellison joined a November 2020 conference call withSean Hannity and SenatorLindsey Graham to discuss ways to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election.[119] By October 2022, Ellison was donating millions of dollars to aSuperPAC to support four Senate candidates who had cast doubt on the 2020 election results.[120] The 2022 Dinesh D'Souza film2000 Mules film falsely alleges unnamed nonprofit organizations associated with theDemocratic Party paid "mules" to illegally collect and deposit ballots intodrop boxes in fiveswing states during the 2020 presidential election.[121][122][123][124]
Some analysts and both Republican and Democratic politicians have suggested that election denial may include an element ofgrifting to solicit donations from unwitting supporters.[125][126][127][128] With an email campaign, Trump raised about $250 million for what he told donors was an "official election defense fund" that did not actually exist.[129][130] By September 2022, a federal grand jury was investigating whether Trump and his allies were soliciting donations on the basis of claims they knew were false, which might violate federalwire fraud laws.[131][132] TheSmith special counsel investigation was also examining the fundraising of former Trump attorneySidney Powell by September 2023.[133]
Kevin Roberts, president ofthe Heritage Foundation, was asked in June 2024 if Heritage would accept the results of the2024 presidential election regardless of its outcome. He replied, "Yes, if there isn't massive fraud like there was in 2020." When presented with data from the Heritage Foundation election fraud database indicating there were only 1,513 proven instances of voter fraud in the United States since 1982, Roberts responded that fraud is "very hard to document, and theDemocrat party is very good at fraud".[134][135] In October 2024, some people who had volunteered as fake electors in 2020 were reported to have been chosen as legitimate electors for Trump should he win the November 2024 elections in certain states. Seven states – Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico and Michigan – have 82 electoral votes. Among them are 14 people who volunteered as fake electors in 2020 and 16 additional deniers of the 2020 election.[136]
| Group | Known state(s) of activity | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Voters Alliance | Virginia | Headed by Jacqueline Timmer, who ran as a Republican for theLynchburg, VirginiaCity Council in 2024[137] and won.[138] | [139][140][137][138] |
| Audit the Vote PA | Pennsylvania | [141][142] | |
| Bucks County Election Integrity Task Force | Pennsylvania | [143] | |
| Cause of America | Funded byMike Lindell. | [144][145][146][139][147] | |
| Clean Elections USA (CEUSA) | Arizona | In 2022, voting rights activists in Arizona filed a lawsuit against CEUSA, alleging that its vigilantes have engaged invoter intimidation by appearing with military gear, weapons and drones at polling locations and ballot drop boxes, as well as by taking pictures of people attempting to use drop boxes withthe threat of posting them online.[148][149] | [149][150] |
| Dakota County Patriots | Accused by local voting rights activists of undermining democracy by supporting voting restrictions and overwhelming election staff with data requests.[151] | [151] | |
| Defend Florida | Florida | Met with the staff ofRon DeSantis, then-Florida Secretary of StateLaurel Lee, and Republican state legislators. Connected toMichael Flynn,Patrick Byrne,Roger Stone and theProud Boys. Supported a state bill for restricting mail-in ballots. Sent election officials thousands of names of voters for voter roll removal.[152] Supported by the Republican Executive Committee ofBrevard County, Florida.[153] One of its activists used data fromEagleAI.[154][155] | [152][153][154][155] |
| Election Crime Bureau | Organized and funded byMike Lindell. Sent emails to local election officials around the United States, which included a survey asking them for sensitive personal data and information about their offices' cybersecurity infrastructure. TheCenter for Internet Security and election officials described these emails as "misleading".[156] Used an app by Superfeed Technologies, a company tied toTyler Bowyer, in which private citizens could file reports of suspected voter fraud.[157] | [156][157] | |
| Election Integrity Alliance | Founded in 2021 byJenna Ellis,Ken Paxton andBernard Kerik. Formed by the American Greatness Fund, which was founded byBrad Parscale.[158] Worked with theAmerica First Policy Institute and theHeritage Foundation on election issues. Defunct by 2024.[159] | [158][159] | |
| Election Integrity Force and Fund | Michigan | [160] | |
| Election Integrity Project California | California | [161][162][163] | |
| Election Protection Project | Texas | Led byMichael McCaul.[164] The parent group, theTexas Public Policy Foundation, is part ofProject 2025.[165] | [164][165] |
| Electoral Education Foundation | North Carolina | Ran by the former chief of staff and campaign manager forDan Forest.[166] The vice president for research ran for city council inWaynesboro, Virginia.[167] | [166][167] |
| FEC United | Colorado, Michigan | Founded byJoe Oltmann. Connected toMike Lindell andKash Patel. | [146] |
| Fight Voter Fraud | Connecticut | [139][168] | |
| Georgia Nerds | Georgia | One of its members had challenged at least 1,000 voters inChatham County, Georgia between 2023 and 2024. | [169] |
| Honest Elections Project | Nation-wide | Also known as theThe 85 Fund. | [170] |
| Iowa Canvassing | Iowa | [171][172] | |
| The Liberty Center for God and Country | Texas | Run bySteven Hotze. | [173] |
| Liberty Lions League | Kansas | [174] | |
| Lion of Judah | Michigan | [175][176] | |
| Look Ahead America | Missouri, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin | Founded by a former Trump campaign staffer. | [171] |
| Maryland Election Integrity LLC | Maryland | [177] | |
| Maryland Voter Integrity Group | Maryland | Associated with the campaign ofDan Cox. | [141] |
| Michigan Fair Elections | Michigan | Tied to theElection Integrity Network. | [178][160] |
| Midwest Swamp Watch | Minnesota, South Dakota | Founded by a former mayor ofSt. Bonifacius, Minnesota who works as a Republican Party operative, had previously advised the campaign ofMonae Johnson, and had also advised the South Dakota Canvassing Group.[179] He was also connected toKim Crockett[179] andMike Lindell.[180] After attending a meeting by the group,Torrey Westrom questioned whether a state program to protect domestic violence victims could shield voter fraud.[181] Supported removal of ballot drop boxes.[151] Pressured county officials to publish cast vote records. Solicited volunteers for election judges.[179] Accused by local voting rights activists of undermining democracy by supporting voting restrictions and overwhelming election staff with data requests.[151] | [179][180][181][151] |
| Minnesota Election Integrity Solutions | Minnesota | Founded by a Republican political consultant. Recruited about 8,500 Minnesota residents to sign up to be election judges.[182] Worked with the Olmsted County Election Integrity group.[183] Posted private voter data online in April 2025, with theMinnesota Secretary of State Office demanding that the group remove it.[184] | [182][183][184] |
| New York Citizens Audit | New York | Shares a founder with United Sovereign Americans.[161] Received acease-and-desist letter from theNew York Attorney General's office, alleging voter intimidation and impersonation of government officials. | [161][185] |
| North Brunswick Republican Club | North Carolina | Accused by the local Democratic party of harassing voters while canvassing, and by the local Republican party of impersonation.[186] | [186] |
| North Carolina Audit Force (NC Audit Force) | North Carolina | Questioned voters in door-to-door canvassing.[166] Linked to the North Brunswick Republican Club.[186] Organized a training for theSurry County, North Carolina Republican Party. Accused by a local election officer of attempting to access voting equipment.[187] The leader of the group had formerly led NCEIT,[187] and had spread voter fraud conspiracy theories, which theNorth Carolina State Board of Elections has unanimously deemed as baseless.[188] | [186][166][187][188] |
| North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT) | North Carolina | Run by the Republican Party chair forLee County, North Carolina.[189] State affiliate of the EIN.[190] Worked withHans von Spakovsky andJ. Christian Adams. Advised by an RNC attorney. The leader also ran a PAC that supported Trump and other Republican political candidates. Organized a state-wide reporting system of alleged incidents which they planned to use for future protests, investigations and policy advocacy. Claimed to have trained over 1,200 poll observers by the fall of 2022, sparking concerns of overwhelming the electoral system. Sent mass records requests to local boards of elections, which election officials have compared todenial-of-service attacks. Opposed state election board rules against voter intimidation by poll workers and election observers. Discussed usingvoter caging anddoor-to-door voter canvassing in attempts to find voters that they believed were incorrectly registered.[189]Posted signs in Spanish that warned non-citizens that they were ineligible to vote, an action that has been criticized as voter intimidation.[191]One participant suggested thatnon-English speakers probably do not have the right to vote, and another made signs at polling sites warning against non-citizen voting in different languages, including "African", that were self-described as "psyop".[192]Includes multiple county election board members, county Republican Party officials, andDale Folwell as participants. Claimed credit for passage of a 2023 election policy bill in the North Carolina state legislature. Worked with Republican state senators to target ERIC.[190] The founder stated that the group should challenge voters with "Hispanic-sounding" last names.[193] | [189][190][191][192][193] |
| Ohio Election Integrity Network | Ohio | Uses material from the national EIN. The election board forLicking County, Ohio gave permission for its staff to work with the group.[194][195] Accused by voting rights activists of being "an unauthorized private group" that took over the state of Ohio's job of maintaining voter rolls after the state left ERIC.[196] | [194][195][196] |
| Ohio Voter Integrity Project | Ohio | Affiliated withTrue the Vote. In 2012, challenged 688 registered voters inHamilton County, Ohio andFranklin County, Ohio. The vast majority of these challenges were discarded.[197][198][199] | [197][198][199] |
| Olmsted County Election Integrity | Minnesota | A group of residents ofOlmsted County, Minnesota,[200] created as an subgroup of the Republican Party of Olmsted County.[201] Alleged that there were more voters than eligible voters during the2020 election, a claim that was debunked by the county administrator. Requested access to voter registration postcards that were returned as undelivered to the county.[202] Challenged 3,703 voters a few weeks before the2022 elections.[201] Hosted election judge training sessions that appeared to be official, alongside an RNC staffer. Asked election volunteers to take photographs of documents and equipment, as well as to rename their smartphones to impersonate theWi-Fi hotspot networks of their polling places. The leader of the group had been hired as an election judge for the 2022 election, but was removed.[183] Two election judges who were part of the group and had worked during the2022 election primaries were investigated by theRochester, Minnesota Police Department[203] and were also removed,[204] but were not charged.[205] Participated in the review of 2022 general election results by the county canvassing board.[206] | [183][200][201][202][203][204][205][206] |
| Only Citizens Vote Coalition | Organized byCleta Mitchell and includes groups that overlap withProject 2025. One of the then-leaders of the Michigan chapter (who had later worked as an elector to cast an electoral vote for Trump in December 2024[207]) had proposed posting signs in "ethnic" neighborhoods that cautioned people against voting if they are not eligible, as well as searching voter rolls for "ethnic names".[208] | [139][209][207] | |
| Opportunity Solutions Project | Kansas, South Dakota | Lobbying arm of theFoundation for Government Accountability, described as a "dark money" group.[210] Lobbied for state-level bills to restrict election administration, such as on absentee ballots[211] and ballot drop boxes.[210] | [210][211] |
| PA Fair Elections | Pennsylvania | Tied toCleta Mitchell, Rosemary Jenks andJohn Eastman.[143] State chapter of EIN. Challenged thousands of residents' right to vote. In August 2025,Heather Honey, a leader of the group, was appointed to a senior leader at theDHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, being responsible for election infrastructure of the United States.[212] | [143][212] |
| Pigpen Project | Nevada | The Pigpen Project is run by former Nevada GOP executive directors and endorsed byPaul Nehlen.[145] The group is part of the Citizens Outreach Foundation, which attempted to purge 11,000 people fromWashoe County, Nevada voter rolls in 2024, a move that theACLU said violated state and federal law due to being requested within 90 days of the upcoming election.[213] | [214][215][171][216] |
| The People's Audit | Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia | [171] | |
| Secure MI Vote | Michigan | Organization formed by Republican voters[217] and backed by Republicans[218] that created a petition that forbids election officials from mass mailing absentee ballot applications[217][218] and tightens voter ID requirements, among other measures.[217] Received donations from theMichigan Republican Party in 2021, and the group in turn used its own money to solicit funding for the state party, leading to an accusation of violating state campaign finance law.[219]Received $150,000 fromSave America, Donald Trump's PAC,[220] and $100,000 from the America Project, co-founded byPatrick Byrne.[221] An investigation by theMichigan Daily found multiple allegations of deceptive practices by the group when collecting petitions.[222]The petition was withdrawn after the passage of the2022 Michigan Proposal 2.[223] | [217][218][219][220][221][222][223] |
| Secure the Vote Maryland | Maryland | [224] | |
| Soles to the Rolls | Michigan | [214][215] | |
| South Dakota Canvassing Group | South Dakota | Formed afterMike Lindell's 2021 symposium. Spread unproven claims of election fraud in the state.[225] The South Dakota Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican lawmakers in theSouth Dakota state legislature, intended to help the group gain access to voter records.[226] Claims by the group that at least two voters in the voter rolls were dead were contradicted by a local commissioner.[179] Includes an elections coordinator forMinnehaha County, South Dakota.[227] Associated with an auditor for the same county. Advocated for hand counting ballots - without any electronic voting machines - for the 2024 election, which a local lawyer warned would violate the Help America Vote Act.[228] Their petitions were rejected by the South Dakota Board of Elections.[229] The Minnehaha County poll board rejected an attempt by the group to challenge absentee ballots as the 2024 primary election was occurring.[230] The group then appealed to theSouth Dakota Supreme Court and presented what they claimed to be evidence of election fraud to a county sheriff.[231] Their request was denied.[180] A person tied to the group unsuccessfully attempted to challenge about 200 voters on Election Day 2024.[232] | [225][226][179][227][228][229][230][231][180][232] |
| Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona | Arizona | A.k.a. EZAZ,[233] represented byAmerica First Legal,[234] and whose leader had ties toKari Lake[235] and an anti-immigrant hate group.[236] | [237][233][234][235][236][238] |
| United Sovereign Americans | California | Represented byBruce Castor. | [161][177][239] |
| U.S. Election Integrity Plan (USEIP) | Colorado | Involved in a voting data breach in Colorado. The group's members were hired byMike Lindell.[144] | |
| Virginia Fair Elections | Virginia | Managed by theVirginia Institute for Public Policy. Received funding from theBradley Foundation.Cleta Mitchell is on the board. Wrote the "Virginia Model", which describes the tactics of conservative activists during the2021 Virginia elections and has since formed the basis for the EIN.[189][241][242] | [189][241][242] |
| Virginians for America First | Virginia | Tied toCleta Mitchell. Funded byPatrick Byrne.[115] Consulted by a company founded by aGeorge Santos staffer.[243] | [243] |
| Voter GA | Georgia | Funded by the America Project.[244] | [244][245][246] |
| Voter Integrity Project | North Carolina | In 2012, challenged 500 registered voters, claiming they were non-citizens. The vast majority of these challenges were discarded.[197] By 2014, lobbied thestate legislature of North Carolina to useCrosscheck.[247] In the lead-up to the 2016 election, had challenged the voter registration of about 4,500 voters, leading to allegations by theNAACP of disproportionately impacting African-Americans.[248] The co-founder of the group[248] was associated withMcCrae Dowless,[249] is the COO of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT) as of 2022,[189] and has been involved in the legal disputes surrounding the2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election.[250][251] | [197][248][249][189][250][251] |
| Voter Research Project | Washington | [252] | |
| Wisconsin Center for Election Justice | Wisconsin | The Wisconsin Center for Election Justice also used change of address data from the USPS to find perceived ineligible voters for purging. This approach was deemed problematic by election experts due to the data's lack of coverage.[253]Fond du Lac County District AttorneyEric Toney used their information to charge five people for registering to vote with aUPS store address.[253] The leader of the group[253] was previously convicted of mail fraud and bank fraud, and was investigated by theWisconsin Capitol Police forstalking behavior towards officials at theWisconsin Election Commission.[254] | [253][254] |
| Wisconsin's North of 29 | Wisconsin | Connected toMike Lindell. The founder's husband ran forWisconsin State Assembly in 2024. | [171][145] |
| Wisconsin Voters Alliance | Wisconsin | In 2022, Wisconsin Voters Alliance, which spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election andattempted to overturn the results, filed lawsuits in 13 counties in Wisconsin to get access to guardianship records in an attempt to remove people from voting rolls that they perceived to be ineligible.[255] | [255] |
Republicans have long thought – sometimes quietly, occasionally out loud – that large turnouts, particularly in urban areas, favor Democrats, and that Republicans benefit when fewer people vote. But politicians and scholars alike say that this moment feels like a dangerous plunge into uncharted waters.
Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservativeThe Heritage Foundation, said in a speech in 1980: "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
The legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law, but it serves to amplify one of Mr. Trump's favorite pre-emptive claims of election fraud. It also underscores Republicans' embrace of a groundless narrative – one that echoes the racist "great replacement" conspiracy theory – that Democrats are intentionally allowing migrants to stream into the United States illegally in order to dilute the voting power of American citizens and lock in electoral victories for themselves ... Republicans are pushing legislation to crack down on voting by noncitizens, which happens rarely and is already illegal in federal elections, in a move that reinforces former President Donald J. Trump's efforts to delegitimize the 2024 results if he loses.
The unsupported claim, which Trump and other Republicans have carted out in past election years, is resonating with voters who agree that security is lacking at both the border and the polls. Experts say it also can be damaging, giving undue traction to false stereotypes and extremist ideologies such as the racist "great replacement theory."
...characteristic mistrust of norms was evident from the beginning in its embrace of birtherism, the racist conspiracy theory that claimed without evidence that Obama was secretly a foreign-born Muslim and ineligible for the presidency. Social media accelerated the spread of such conspiratorial beliefs, which further dissolved trust in established institutions and objective truth....the tea party never really died; its energies were reactivated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump – who of course was the leading purveyor of birtherism.....both the tea party and Trump's movement also were rooted in fact-free conspiracy theories about the treachery of Democrats and elites, who allegedly plotted to destroy the livelihoods and traditions of "real Americans" for their own benefit.
Former President Trump and his allies have already signaled they will not accept the results of the election if they believe it's "unfair," reviving the type of rhetoric that helped incite the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The Heritage Foundation's much-cited database of voting irregularities, when recently checked, included about 85 cases involving noncitizens since 2002.
Praised by former President Donald Trump as exposing "great election fraud," the movie, called "2000 Mules," paints an ominous picture suggesting Democrat-aligned ballot "mules" were supposedly paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But that's based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data, which is not precise enough to confirm that somebody deposited a ballot into a drop box, according to experts.
The groups have largely dropped the push for expansive laws, shifting instead to a strategy one leader describes as "radical incrementalism" — a step-by-step approach intended to be more politically palatable than the broad legislation that provoked widespread protest in 2021.
Second presidency of Donald Trump (2025–present) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | |||||||||||||||
| Events |
| ||||||||||||||
| Policies |
| ||||||||||||||
| Democratic backsliding |
| ||||||||||||||
| Protests | |||||||||||||||
| Related |
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Senator | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Vice presidency | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Presidency |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Family |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Writings | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Speeches | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Media depictions | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Related |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
