In a national television appearance on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell knocked down claims of wide-scale voting fraud in the presidential election. While tossing cold water on President Trump’s repeated (and unsubstantiated) claims of fraud impacting the election, McConnell did say that vote fraud is real, it happens, and Kentucky has a history of it. “… the Democratic myth that voter fraud is a fiction, is not true,” McConnell said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We’ve had a series of significant cases in Kentucky over the years. There is voter fraud in the country.” Our reporting pals at WAVE-3 in Louisville asked McConnell’s office for details. His office responded with a link to our newsroom’s August 2016 article on Kentucky’s history of vote buying. So, is McConnell right? Is fraud rampant in Kentucky? No, not really. The answer is complicated, though, and it boils down to semantics.
Some Republicans, most notably Trump, have pushed the notion of massive voter impersonation, including fake ballots, fake identities, buses of voters crossing state lines and more. Those actions most definitely fit the definition of voter fraud.
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes reported zero complaints of voter fraud in the most recent election. In a letter sent last week to Congress, Grimes, who oversees elections in the state, said there is no information that anyone prohibited from casting a vote did so. Attorney General Andy Beshear said via Twitter that his office “has no evidence of voter fraud” related to the presidential election. He noted that vote buying convictions in recent years did not involve a federal election.
Nonetheless, Kentucky does have a history of vote buying, selling and coercion. Those actions are illegal. Last fall, three people were convicted in federal court of conspiring to buy votes on behalf of candidates running for local office in Magoffin County.
Full Article: Voting Fraud vs. Election Fraud And Claims Of Chicanery In Kentucky.