It can be discerned, if somebody wants to spend a little money.
(1) Take a voting district with suspiciously-high turnout.
(2) Take a random sample of voters, using a high sampling for the absentee ballots.
(3) For each voter, use skip-trace and credit-check databases to see if there is evidence that the person is there (credit cards at that address, utility payments in that person's name).
(4) For voters that you don't see evidence of somebody by that name actually living there, have a PI pay a personal visit.
(5) Also check for people who show multiple addresses that signify multiple residences (college students, snowbirds, owners of vacation homes) and see if there are multiple voter registrations for the same person.
“It can be discerned, if somebody wants to spend a little money.”
I guess I doubt that the ‘studies’ performed had the funding, or authority to go to all that effort.
And, I reject the notion that fraud on a large scale has to be proven, before it can be addressed. I’ve never had my house broken into; yet, I still bought a lock to put on the front door.
Anyway, I’ll rephrase....Voter fraud is difficult and costly to detect; and, I doubt the studies that have been done are complete enought to discern whether or not we have large scale voter fraud.