As Rockler asserts, “Many Americans—including legislators—overestimate how common voter and election fraud are”; she then uses careful documentation to prove her point. After a brief description of a 2021 case of voter fraud in Georgia—in which a man forged someone’s signature on a misdelivered ballot and was sentenced to prison for voting twice—the author describes the Heritage Foundation’s documentation of voter fraud cases. But the think tank’s own statistics show how extremely rare it is. This concise overview opens by covering the distinction between voter fraud, which involves individuals defying electoral law, versus election fraud, which includes destroying or miscounting ballots, tampering with voting machines, or paying people to vote for a specific candidate. One memorably humorous example involves a Montana man who registered to vote as Miguel Raton—or Mickey Mouse. The chapters that follow contain an abundance of information, including quotations from election experts, discussions in some states about tightening anti-fraud measures, the disproportionate impact of voter ID laws on Black citizens, the history of voting machines, safeguards against fraud, cybersecurity concerns regarding online voting, and more. A text box describes Dominion Voting Systems’ successful defamation lawsuit in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The text is accessibly written, and the book’s layout is appealing, making this a strong choice for teens wishing to learn about this important topic.
Highly recommended. (source notes, organizations and websites, further research, index, picture credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)