325 Voter Fraud Convictions in 20 Years, BBC Verify Finds

President Donald Trump is offering a $1 million reward, reported in pounds as roughly £750,000, to people who report cases of voter fraud that lead to a conviction, according to BBC Verify. The offer comes as Trump casts doubt on the security of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, alleging "rampant" cheating in postal voting and non-citizen voting — claims that studies cited by BBC Verify say are not borne out by the data.

How rare is voter fraud in US mail voting?

Multiple studies examined by BBC Verify found fraud involving postal ballots is extremely rare. The Brookings Institution reviewed the 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections and found an average of about four fraud cases for every 10 million postal votes cast, according to BBC Verify's report. The Brookings analysis drew on a database maintained by the Heritage Foundation — a think tank that has been aligned with Trump in the past — which logs electoral fraud cases that ended in conviction. BBC Verify said it reviewed that database over the past 20 years and tallied 325 convictions tied to the fraudulent use of postal ballots nationwide.

A separate 2020 study by the American Statistical Association looked at voter fraud in eight states that mail ballots to all eligible voters and found no evidence that mail voting increased the overall risk of fraud, BBC Verify reported. As one example, Oregon recorded 40 fraud cases between 2000 and 2020 after sending out more than 100 million postal ballots over that period, according to the study cited.

What is Trump's $1 million fraud reward?

Trump's reward targets anyone who can report voter fraud that results in a conviction, BBC Verify said, timed to arrive just before the midterms. The president has for years made unsubstantiated claims that mail voting leads to widespread fraud even as he has encouraged Republicans to vote by mail and said he has cast his own ballot by post in the past, according to the BBC Verify report.

How has Trump tried to change postal voting rules?

Trump has pushed Congress to pass legislation — referenced by BBC Verify as the SAVE America Act — that would limit mail voting to people who are disabled, ill, serving in the military or traveling. That effort has not passed. Separately, Trump signed an executive order last year directing the US Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on citizen lists compiled by government agencies, and seeking to require states to use uniform envelope styles for postal votes, BBC Verify reported.

The Supreme Court rejected that order, calling the changes "arbitrary and capricious" so close to the midterm elections, though the justices said they could revisit the issue afterward, according to the BBC Verify account. Most US states currently allow residents to vote by mail without providing a reason, and roughly 48 million people cast postal ballots in the 2024 presidential election, BBC Verify said.

What safeguards do states already use for mail ballots?

State rules for verifying postal ballots vary, but BBC Verify reported that every state matches information on returned ballots against voter records on file to confirm eligibility, and most states also conduct signature checks before counting a mail ballot. Those layered checks are part of why researchers such as the American Statistical Association team found no elevated fraud risk tied to mail voting itself, rather than to the existing verification systems already in place.

What does Trump claim about non-citizen voting?

Beyond postal ballots, Trump has argued that non-citizen voting is widespread. Ahead of the 2024 election, he said Democrats were allowing migrants into the country "so they can vote, vote, vote," BBC Verify reported. It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in US federal elections, and the news organization's report did not cite data showing non-citizen voting at the scale Trump has described, framing the claim alongside the broader pattern BBC Verify found: repeated assertions of widespread fraud that existing conviction records and academic studies do not support.

The dispute sits at the center of the run-up to the Nov. 3 midterms, with the White House pressing for tighter mail-ballot rules and the Supreme Court signaling it may revisit the question once voting concludes, according to BBC Verify's reporting.