Fox News host Gretchen Carlson expressed shock over voter fraud realities during an interview with contributor Julie Roginsky, claiming “most states cannot brag about” the .00174 percent voter fraud rate in North Carolina.  Contrary to Carlson's claim, the rate of voter fraud found in North Carolina is typical, and even higher than the nationwide rate. 

On the September 30 edition of Fox News' The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, Roginsky and guest Dee Dee Benkie joined Carlson in a discussion on the Justice Department's lawsuit against North Carolina over its strict new voting laws.  Carlson was taken aback when confronted with the low rates of voter fraud in North Carolina, claiming, “that sounds like they're the best state in the nation, which I will look into after this show, because most states cannot brag about that”:

Carlson should not be shocked. According to a study by News21, a part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, “analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 shows that while fraud has occurred, the rate is infinitesimal.”  Nationwide, cases of voter impersonation that resulted in convictions or guilty pleas accounted for about .00000013 of the 197 million votes cast for federal candidates between 2002 and 2005.

A state-by-state map reveals that the number of confirmed voter fraud cases in North Carolina is in step with many other states.  Some states, like New York and Louisiana, have even lower rates.  In Pennsylvania, where a voter ID law has been blocked several times, there have been five cases of voter fraud since 2000.

Carlson's misinformed analysis on voter fraud rates falls in line with right-wing media's constant attempts to paint voter fraud as epidemic, despite a lack of evidence to support the claim.