This week we will investigate voter fraud. First we will use the conservative Heritage Foundation's own database to investigate how much fraud there is and how much strict voter ID laws would prevent. Note, there is a difference between voter impersonation which strict voter IDs might prevent and other illegal activities, such as voter registration fraud, ballot petition fraud, and corruption of voting officials..
You can find the Heritage Foundation database here. Investigate fraud in your home state and in one other state. Try to identify (1) how many instances of in-person voting fraud occurred and (2) how many instances of mail-in/absentee voting fraud occurred, noting that in most cases these were caught before ballots were counted. In both cases how many votes were cast in the elections from which these cases were found. What is the resulting percentage of voter fraud per ballots cast?
Read over news reports from last November and December 2020. Find two different court cases in two different states claiming voter fraud should require that some ballots not be counted. What were the grounds for these lawsuits? What facts were presented? What was the finding of the court?
Then read some of the information referenced below. The comprehensive report was done in 2007, but its conclusions still apply. Among the other sources are some more recent report with similar conclusions.
Brennan Center collection of sources on Voter Fraud and related issue
Brennan comprehesive report on Voter Fraud.
In your discussion paper, relate your views about the need for strict photo IDs for voting, the risk of an election being turned by voter fraud, and the safety or problems with mail-in voting.