Electoral fraud statistics show how reported allegations changed in the available UK data from 2010 to 2024. The Electoral Commission recorded category shares for 2010–2019 and annual counts of alleged cases investigated by police for 2020–2024. These are allegations and investigations, not findings that every reported incident was electoral fraud.
Contents
- The latest police-investigation figures
- What happened to cases in 2024
- The types of allegations recorded in 2024
- Personation allegations and voting methods
- Longer-term patterns from 2010 to 2019
- Campaigning, voting and registration over time
The latest police-investigation figures
The Electoral Commission reported 15 alleged electoral fraud cases investigated by police in 2020. The corresponding figure was 317 in 2021, 194 in 2022, 347 in 2023 and 445 in 2024. The figures describe cases investigated by police in each stated year; they do not, by themselves, establish that an offence occurred or that a person was convicted.
| Year | Alleged cases investigated by police |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2021 | 317 |
| 2022 | 194 |
| 2023 | 347 |
| 2024 | 445 |
Across 2020 to 2024, the Electoral Commission reported 1,318 alleged electoral fraud cases, alongside 8 convictions and 3 cautions. The overall period therefore includes several different stages of the process: an allegation being recorded, a case being investigated, and an outcome such as a conviction or caution. Those measures should not be treated as interchangeable.
The annual series is uneven. The recorded count was 15 in 2020, rose to 317 in 2021, fell to 194 in 2022, then rose to 347 in 2023 and 445 in 2024. The highest annual figure in this five-year series was therefore recorded in 2024, while the lowest was recorded in 2020. The source labels these figures as Electoral Commission electoral fraud data for the relevant years.
What happened to cases in 2024
The Electoral Commission reported 445 alleged electoral fraud cases investigated by police in 2024. It also reported that 94% of alleged electoral fraud cases resulted in no further action or were locally resolved. This outcome measure is specific to 2024 and should not be extended to other years in the series.
The 2024 outcome statistic matters because a count of allegations is not the same as a count of proven offences. A case can be reported and investigated without leading to a conviction. The supplied 2020–2024 overview records 8 convictions and 3 cautions across the whole five-year period, while the 2024 source reports the share ending in no further action or local resolution. The two statements describe different time spans and different measures.
When reading the 2024 figures, three distinctions are especially important:
- “Alleged” describes the status of the reported conduct, rather than a proven offence.
- “Investigated by police” describes an investigative stage, rather than an outcome.
- “No further action or locally resolved” describes a reported outcome for 2024, rather than a finding that all allegations were baseless.
These distinctions help prevent the common mistake of presenting every recorded allegation as confirmed fraud. The Electoral Commission’s 2024 data provide a picture of reports and case handling, not a measure of the number of convictions alone.
The types of allegations recorded in 2024
The 2024 Electoral Commission data divide the 445 alleged cases into several allegation categories. Campaigning allegations accounted for 284 cases, making campaigning the largest named category in that year’s figures. Voting allegations accounted for 84 cases, while registration allegations accounted for 46.
Nomination allegations accounted for 27 cases, and other allegations accounted for 4 cases. These categories describe the subject of the allegation; they do not indicate that each case was substantiated.
| 2024 allegation category | Cases |
|---|---|
| Campaigning | 284 |
| Voting | 84 |
| Registration | 46 |
| Nomination | 27 |
| Other | 4 |
Campaigning allegations were the largest category in the 2024 data, followed by voting, registration and nomination allegations. The “other” category was recorded separately with 4 cases. Because the supplied figures identify categories as case counts, they should be read as a classification of reported cases rather than as estimates of the prevalence of proven electoral offences.
The category breakdown also illustrates why a single headline number can be incomplete. The annual total of 445 cases gives the scale of police-investigated allegations, but the category figures show what those allegations concerned. The 2024 data therefore support two different questions: how many cases were investigated, and what type of conduct was alleged.
Personation allegations and voting methods
Personation was recorded separately within the 2024 Electoral Commission data. Police recorded 17 personation allegations. Of these, 9 involved postal votes, 7 involved polling stations and 1 involved a proxy vote.
| Personation allegation context in 2024 | Allegations |
|---|---|
| Postal votes | 9 |
| Polling stations | 7 |
| Proxy vote | 1 |
| Total personation allegations | 17 |
The supplied figures distinguish the voting method involved in these allegations. Postal votes accounted for 9 of the recorded personation allegations, polling stations for 7, and proxy votes for 1. This is a description of allegations recorded by police in 2024, not evidence that one voting method caused fraud or that any of the allegations resulted in a conviction.
The personation figures should also be kept separate from the wider 2024 totals for campaigning, voting, registration, nomination and other allegations. The data identify personation as a specific allegation detail, while the wider category table describes broader areas of reported conduct. Combining the categories without an explicit classification rule could count the same case more than once, so the figures are best presented as separate views of the source data.
Longer-term patterns from 2010 to 2019
For 2010 through 2019, the Electoral Commission’s 2019 electoral fraud data report the percentage distribution of electoral fraud allegations by category. These figures are shares for each year, rather than the police-investigation counts reported for 2020–2024. The source labels should therefore remain attached to this earlier series.
Campaigning was the largest reported category in 2019 at 54%. Voting accounted for 24%, nomination for 12%, registration for 10% and administration for 1%. In 2018, campaigning represented 48%, voting 21%, nomination 15%, registration 15% and administration 0%.
In 2017, campaigning accounted for 49% of allegations, voting 31%, registration 11%, nomination 7% and administration 1%; miscellaneous allegations accounted for 1%. In 2016, voting was the largest category at 43%, followed by campaigning at 37%, nomination at 9%, registration at 8% and administration at 2%.
The available percentage pattern for 2015 records campaigning at 56%, voting at 26%, nomination at 10%, registration at 8% and administration at 1%. For 2014, campaigning accounted for 38%, voting 27%, registration 15%, nomination 14%, administration 3% and miscellaneous allegations 3%.
The earlier series contains several years in which campaigning was the largest category, but 2016 is different: voting allegations accounted for the largest reported share. The percentages are not a claim that one category was inherently more serious than another. They show how the Electoral Commission’s recorded allegation mix was distributed in each year.
Campaigning, voting and registration over time
The 2010–2013 figures provide another view of the changing allegation mix. In 2013, campaigning accounted for 54% of allegations, registration 18%, voting 13%, nomination 8%, miscellaneous allegations 5% and administration 1%.
In 2012, campaigning represented 41%, voting 25%, registration 23%, nomination 6%, miscellaneous allegations 3% and administration 1%. In 2011, campaigning accounted for 52%, registration 22%, voting 14%, nomination 7%, miscellaneous allegations 4% and administration 2%.
In 2010, voting accounted for 32% of allegations, campaigning 31%, registration 28%, nomination 6%, miscellaneous allegations 2% and administration 1%. This makes 2010 another year in which campaigning was not the largest reported category: voting had the highest share in the supplied data.
The following compact comparison brings together the principal categories for selected years in the earlier series. Each entry is the percentage reported by the Electoral Commission’s 2019 electoral fraud data.
| Year | Campaigning | Voting | Registration | Nomination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 31% | 32% | 28% | 6% |
| 2013 | 54% | 13% | 18% | 8% |
| 2016 | 37% | 43% | 8% | 9% |
| 2019 | 54% | 24% | 10% | 12% |
Across these selected years, the largest reported share varies between campaigning and voting. Campaigning accounted for 31% in 2010, 54% in 2013, 37% in 2016 and 54% in 2019. Voting accounted for 32%, 13%, 43% and 24% in those same years. Registration was 28% in 2010, 18% in 2013, 8% in 2016 and 10% in 2019.
The 2010–2019 percentages and the 2020–2024 case counts should not be combined as though they were one uniform measurement series. The earlier figures describe category shares in the Electoral Commission’s 2019 data, while the later figures describe alleged cases investigated by police in specific years. Keeping the measurement type and period explicit is essential when comparing electoral fraud statistics.