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With just three weeks until the U.S. midterm elections, familiar conspiracy theories about election fraud are resurfacing on social media. From Arizona to Michigan, allegations of stolen elections are being revived and repackaged with new controversies, lawsuits and administrative disputes. The underlying message remains the same: Americans cannot trust their electoral system. But they can.
Before examining how these narratives are spreading, it is worth establishing a few facts.
Voter fraud in the United States is extremely rare. Of the more than 25 million votes cast across six battleground states in the 2020 presidential election, an Associated Press investigation identified fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud. Even those were not all confirmed.
That is not a coincidence. U.S. elections operate under multiple layers of security designed to prevent fraud and detect errors. Voting equipment undergoes pre-election testing to verify that ballots are recorded and counted accurately. After Election Day, canvassing procedures, reconciliation checks, and post-election audits provide additional safeguards against mistakes and irregularities.
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