New state voter fraud units finding few cases from midterms

WASHINGTON — State-level law enforcement units created after the 2020 presidential election to investigate voter fraud are looking into scattered complaints more than two weeks after the midterms but have provided no indication of systemic problems. “I am not aware of any significant detection of fraud on Election Day, but that’s not surprising,” said Paul Smith, senior vice president of the Campaign Legal Center. In Georgia, where Trump tried to pressure state officials to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss, a new law gives the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, authority to initiate investigations of alleged election fraud without a request from election officials. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced he was forming his own Election Integrity Unit in September, saying it would “work to help restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth.” The formation of the unit came in a state where Republicans swept the three statewide offices in 2021 elections, including Miyares’ defeat of a Democratic incumbent. But he said Republican steps to boost what they often refer to as “election integrity” to combat voter fraud often are about something else.