FACT CHECK: Have Only Trump Supporters Been Arrested For Election Fraud?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A post shared on Facebook claims supporters of former President Donald Trump are the only people who have been arrested for election fraud.

Verdict: False

Supporters of both parties have been arrested for election fraud, according to news reports.

Fact Check:

Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through various means of election and voter fraud, according to The New York Times. Many of these claims have either been repeatedly debunked or presented without evidence, The Washington Post reported.

A post shared on Facebook claims it is actually only Trump supporters who have been arrested for election fraud. “The only people who’ve been arrested for election fraud are Trump supporters in Florida, Trump supporters in Wisconsin & Trump supporters in Texas,” reads the Aug. 2 post. “Every time Republicans claim an upcoming election is ‘rigged’ — it’s because they are trying to rig the election. Call out the lie.”

The claim also went viral on Twitter, with one iteration receiving over 5,000 retweets.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been arrested for election fraud, according to news reports. Kelvin Bolton, a Biden voter, was arrested and charged with voter fraud last year after voting in prison, according to a June 2021 ProPublica article. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, a former Democratic Congressman and Philadelphia political operative, recently pled guilty to election fraud charges, including bribery, falsification of voting record and conspiring to illegaly vote, the Department of Justice announced in June.

John Malcolm, the vice president of Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government, said the Facebook claim was “preposterous.” (RELATED: Viral Video Falsely Claims To Show A Technician Manipulating Voting Data In Georgia)

“While it is certainly true that some Republican voters have been convicted of voter fraud, so have Democrats.” Malcolm pointed Check Your Fact to a database operated by the Heritage Foundation that tracks cases of election fraud.

The Associated Press reported in December 2021 that there were hundreds of election fraud cases around the country and stated they were “bipartisan.”

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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