LEXINGTON, Ky. — As Kentuckians vote early, both in-person and through absentee ballots, some may worry about seeing an increase in voter fraud during this upcoming election. One county clerk explains how voter fraud is not as common as some may think. 

Don Blevins, the Fayette County Clerk, says pulling off an operation to throw an election is nearly impossible. It would take many people to successfully complete, and slipping up would happen without a doubt. 

“Well, generally speaking, there’s very little voter fraud from across the United States anywhere. For the most part, it’s still restricted to good old fashion vote buying which is very difficult to start, particularly with the absentee ballots,” Blevins said. 

This year, with COVID-19, some state officials have pushed for Kentuckians to request absentee ballots and participate in early voting to prevent long lines at the polls on Election Day. Blevins says some believe voter fraud with absentee ballots would be easier to commit, but because Kentuckians would realize their ballots were missing, it would make it harder to accomplish. 

“For someone to really pull up a mass amount of voter fraud enough to throw an election would require the cooperation and collusion of a number of people in particular positions, and that’s just not going to happen without somebody slipping up and telling somebody or actually just getting caught and revealing the whole operation,” Blevins said. 

Blevins says the Fayette County Clerk's Office is always on the lookout for voter fraud and encourages anyone who suspects voter fraud operations going on in this upcoming election to report it. 

“For our primary election, the Republican Secretary of State will tell you there are zero cases of vote fraud by mail in the state of Kentucky. I can say there were zero cases in Fayette County, but I think it’s stronger when you’re here than it was statewide,” Blevins said.