“WE take the risk of electoral fraud very seriously,” says the Electoral Commission (EC), the body in charge of overseeing votes in the UK.

And rightly so, as voter fraud – on a large enough scale – could put our very democracy at risk.

“Throughout the year, all police forces across the UK send us data about allegations of electoral fraud that they receive and investigate,” the EC goes on to say. “Every year we report on the number, type, and outcome of these allegations, so that you can understand what’s happened and how cases are resolved.”

All good to know, as this is clearly an issue to take notice of. Or is it, really? Is voter fraud a big problem in the UK?

The answer is no, not really.

Those numbers the EC talks about include the total number of alleged electoral frauds. Between 2018 and 2022, the EC said 1,386 cases of alleged electoral fraud were reported to police.

However, of those, 11 resulted in convictions, while the police issued six cautions.

So that’s a grand total of 17 actual incidents in four years – less than five a year.

When you consider in that period the UK held a general election and any number of local elections, it’s really not very many.

But not to be complacent, one case of voter fraud is too many, right?

In 2022, a total of 13 cases of alleged personation fraud – pretending to be someone else – were recorded by police forces. Seven cases involved allegations at polling stations.