The Heritage Foundation found 36 cases of fraud out of 42 million votes cast over 25 years and 36 elections in Arizona.
Posted by Real Time with Bill Maher, Checked
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Real Time with Bill MaherOct 24, 2026
The Brookings Institution, using Heritage's own database, reports that Arizona had 36 fraud cases across 36 elections and about 42.6 million ballots over 25 years, matching the claim's figures. Other sources cover different time windows or snapshots of the database, so they do not contradict it; the claim's wording is faithful to the post.
What was said
… Just Department, in the last two months, federal prosecutors have charged, charged, just charged 113 citizens in 20 states with illegal voting. That's out of 227 million registered voters: 113 out of 227 million. They looked into it. The Heritage Foundation, conservative organization, Arizona, they went back 25 years, 36 elections, 42 million votes cast, 36 cases of fraud. Pennsylvania: 100 million votes cast over 30 years, 32 elections, 39 cases. They went to Nevada just this year in July. The DHS did. They thought there were 16,000 non-citizens illegally registered. They did a big follow-up. It turned out 185, not 16,000. …
Real Time with Bill Maher · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Brookings (Kamarck, Oct 2024) took Heritage's own data and reports that in Arizona Heritage went back 25 years, 36 elections, and 42,626,379 ballots cast to find 36 cases of fraud.[3]
Context. A 2026 UNLV fact sheet using Heritage's Election Fraud Map counts 1998–2025 cases across five Mountain West states, a different window and scope that does not conflict with the 25-year Arizona figure.[4]
Context. Earlier fact-checks (Snopes 2024, PolitiFact 2020) cite Heritage's Arizona counts for single elections or different periods (for example four cases in 2020, or 20 cases since 2009), which reflect different scopes rather than contradicting the 25-year total.[1][2]
Context. A reader letter claims Heritage found 35 cases in Arizona, a minor discrepancy from a non-authoritative opinion piece that does not outweigh the Brookings figure.[5]
Context. Several opinion and blog pieces repeat the 36-case, 42-million-ballot figure, but they trace back to the same Brookings/Heritage data and add no independent corroboration.[6][7][8][9]
Sources
9 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 5 not rated
- 1There's Still No Evidence of Systematic Voter Fraud in the ...snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Conservative activists promote misleading, 'undercover' ...politifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3How widespread is election fraud in the United States? Not verybrookings.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 4[PDF] Election Fraud in the Mountain West, 1998-2025 - OAsis: UNLV'soasis.library.unlv.edu · primary source · cited for: context
- 5Reader's View: Beware endless dirty tricks before Election Dayduluthnewstribune.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 6Instances of Voter Fraud: Proven Cases, Types, and Preventionlegalclarity.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 7Thought ahead of tonight's address: the conservative Heritage ...x.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 8Claims of voter fraud are fraud - Santa Maria Sunsantamariasun.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 9Why I Paid My Taxes - Estero Bay Newsesterobaynews.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Heritage Foundation conducted an investigation into voter fraud and found very little, minuscule instances of it.Mixed
- The Heritage Foundation conducted a study about fraudulent voting in America and found none.False
- A report alleges 1,100 fraudulent votes in Arizona during the 2020 election.Can’t tell
- There have been very few cases of in-person voter fraud in all elections over decades.True
- The Census Bureau report on noncitizen voting in 2020 alleged 1,100 fraudulent votes in Arizona.True