Election officials in Arizona announced Friday that they had identified just 182 cases of potential voter fraud among the 3.4 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election. Of the 182 cases referred to investigators, only four have led to charges against those involved, and no one has been convicted. That’s .005 percent of the votes cast. Two of the four cases that resulted in charges were Democratic votes, and two were Republican. Joe Biden won the state’s Electoral College votes. The audit was costly, necessitating that Arizona scrap and replace the voting machines tainted by the investigation. The count undercuts the accusations of widespread fraud made by former president Donald Trump. Republicans across the country have used Trump’s lies as political cudgels to push laws through state legislatures that experts say will restrict access to voting and depress turnout.
