OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall said Tuesday he believes mass voter fraud will occur in November in Democratic-led states conducting elections primarily by mail.
"There will be mass fraud across states where there's not checks and balances in place," Marshall said, referring to the states where ballots will be mailed directly to all registered voters.
According to CNN's political unit, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia will hold universal mail-in elections.
Although experts acknowledge there have been instances of voter fraud with mail-in or absentee ballots, the number of known cases is relatively rare.
News21, a national investigative reporting project, analyzed reports of election fraud in the U.S. from 2000 to 2012 and found just 491 cases out of millions of votes cast.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding mail-in voting, calling it "very, very bad" on Monday at the Republican National Convention.
Conversely, the president has praised absentee voting.
Marshall made the same distinction in an interview with the 41 Action News I-Team. The congressman said the state of Kansas has checks and balances to maintain the integrity of absentee votes.
"When you do an absentee ballot, when the secretary of state mailed us all the opportunity to apply for early balloting, they are doing signature checks and those sorts of things," Marshall said.
However, according to fact checkers at the Associated Press, the distinction is false. Mail-in ballots are cast the same way and are still subject to the state's verification requirements.
Still, Marshall asserted there's opportunity for fraud whenever there are multiple people touching a ballot.
Polls show the congressman in a tight race against Democrat Barbara Bollier for a Senate seat. A SurveyUSA poll released on August 12 has Marshall at 46% and Bollier at 44%, which is within the margin of error.
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