Every major election cycle, people claim that dead people are voting — alleging fraud that could affect the results of the election. Nov. 5, 2024, will likely be no different.
Although former U.S. President Donald Trump popularized the claim in recent years, we found evidence of dead peoples' votes going back at least 20 years. There are several reasons this can happen, ranging from clerical error to voter fraud. However, claims that states count dead people's votes on a widespread scale are exaggerated.
For example, while on the campaign trail in 2016, Trump quoted (at 20:29) a Pew Research study, saying: "More than 1.8 million deceased individuals right now are listed as voters. Oh, that's wonderful." The study he cited does contain that statistic, but it does not say 1.8 million dead people actually voted. It simply called for improved voter-registration systems to keep voter rolls up to date.
In the weeks following the 2020 presidential election, Trump's "Stop the Steal" rhetoric reached a fever pitch, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in which Trump supporters aimed to stop Congress from counting Electoral College votes.
"Over 8,000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Think of that. Dead people, lots of dead people, thousands," Trump said in his speech that day.
In reality, votes cast on behalf of dead people historically make up a tiny fraction of all votes — not enough to sway results. Below, we break down the facts:
How Often Are Dead Peoples' Ballots Cast?
As mail-in voting has become increasingly accessible, trust in the electoral system has dropped. However, according to one study, in Washington state — where mail-in voting is the primary way voters cast their ballots — the rate of dead people voting is virtually insignificant. In 2020, a Stanford University study found that among roughly 4.5 million distinct Washington voters from 2011 to 2018, there were an estimated 14 dead individuals whose ballots "might have been cast suspiciously long after their death," which is 0.0003% of all voters in the state. The study noted:
Even these few cases may reflect two individuals with the same name and birth date, or clerical errors, rather than fraud. If we relax requirements for matching middle names to accommodate people who may not have middle names, we estimate that there are an additional 43 cases of potential fraud, but these are more likely to be false positives. On the whole, the results suggest that it is extremely rare for dead people's ballots to be counted as votes in Washington's universal vote-by-mail system.
The study also pointed out that Washington has had years to hone the mail-in voting system, something other states have not yet been able to do, which could result in higher rates of fraud and dead people voting.
In 2021, The Associated Press launched an investigation into the six battleground states Trump disputed following the 2020 election, and, after reviewing every potential case of voter fraud (not exclusively but including dead people voting), found fewer than 475 cases — "a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election."
According to The Washington Post, Trump himself commissioned a report following that election to investigate voter fraud, and it found "there was no reason to believe the final vote totals in five key states were fraudulent." In Georgia, for example, the report estimated a "potential statewide exposure" of 23 votes cast on behalf of dead people, not "close to 5,000," as Trump claimed.
Overall, votes cast in the name of, or on behalf of, dead people make up a tiny fraction of total votes, although it does happen. Below, we'll explore the reasons states may count the vote of a dead person.
Why Might a State Count a Dead Person's Vote?
First, there is a key difference between people attempting to submit a ballot for someone who has died and that vote actually counting. While some people have intentionally committed voter fraud using the name of someone dead, there are also cases of clerical error or simply issues of timing.
Intentional Fraud
There have been a number of recorded cases of intentional fraud, such as a household receiving the ballot of a dead family member and voting on their behalf.
For example, Russel Hobbs, a 56-year-old man from Washington state, illegally signed and submitted a ballot in his wife's name in the 2020 election; she died about three months earlier. "I think [Hobbs] just tried to honor his deceased loved one," his attorney said to The News Tribune in Tacoma.
In another case, a man from Pennsylvania cast a vote on behalf of his dead mother in 2020, but the state caught the illegal ballot and sentenced him to five years of probation. "I was isolated last year in lockdown," Bruce Bartman told the court. "I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake."
In short, although there are cases of people using dead individuals' names to cast illegal ballots, it is not widespread or organized.
Clerical and Data Errors
In other instances, clerical and data errors — such as a dead person's name and birthdate matching that of someone who's living, or even stray marks on paper — have caused confusion.
"You might think it's weird that someone with the same name and the same date of birth died, but it's actually not that strange when you think about a 350 million person country," Jason Roberts, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told The Associated Press in 2022. "It happens a lot."
In 2012, the South Carolina Election Commission wrote a letter in response to the state attorney general's claim of potential voter fraud. The commission found that out of a sample of 207 cases in the 2010 general election in which deceased people appeared to cast votes, 106 were the result of clerical errors by poll managers. In 56 others, data-matching errors by the Department of Motor Vehicles led to still-living voters being flagged as deceased. In 32 cases, electronic scanning of voter-registration lists picked up stray marks that led to people incorrectly being marked as having voted.
Issues of Timing
Lastly, sometimes a person dies after submitting the mail-in ballot and before Election Day. States handle this situation differently.
Although no state allows voters to cast ballots on behalf of someone who has died, many states count the vote of someone who voted early and then died before Election Day.
"No one asks if a ballot should count if the voter votes on Election Day and succumbs before the polls close—that seems ludicrous," Tammy Patrick, chief program officer of the National Association of Election Officials, wrote via email. "Yet, that is the very essence of this policy question."
According to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures:
- Ten states — Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia — have laws allowing absentee ballots from voters who die before Election Day.
- Another state, Connecticut, allows such ballots to count only if the voter was in the armed forces.
- Nine states — Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — prohibit such ballots by law. In Missouri, evidence of the death must be shown to election officials before Election day, and the ballot in question must still be in its sealed envelope.
- Two states — Kentucky and Mississippi — prohibit such ballots, but through attorney general opinions, not law.
- Three states — Colorado, Kansas and New York — allow absentee ballots to be challenged on the grounds of a voter's death before Election Day. The ballot will be rejected if an investigation confirms the death.
The group did not find laws about whether such ballots would be counted in the remaining states or in Washington, D.C.
What Countermeasures Exist?
With a combination of punishments for illegal voting and efforts to monitor the legitimacy of ballots, states work to combat votes "cast" by a dead person, whether intentionally or accidentally.
Legal penalties for intentionally casting a vote on behalf of a dead person may include probation, a fine or even prison time, depending on the charges and the state.
Election offices take steps to keep voter lists accurate, such as regularly checking death records, obituaries and driver's-license cancellation records. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires states to work with the state agency in charge of recording deaths (most often a bureau of vital statistics or the health department) to keep registration records up to date.
In Sum …
There is no evidence to back claims that dead people vote on an impactful, widespread or organized scale. In reality, votes cast on behalf of dead people historically make up a minuscule fraction of votes — not enough to sway election results.