Disproven: My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections

by Ken Block

Many searched for evidence of voter fraud in 2020, only a few were unbiased professionals . . . and only one has written a book about his experience.If you value the integrity of our elections—or want a behind-the-scenes look at an attempt at overturning one—Disproven by Ken Block takes you out of the voting booth and into the chaos that was the attempt to challenge the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In November 2020, data specialist Ken Block received a phone call from the Trump Campaign. They wanted to hire him to find evidence of election fraud. What followed were late night and early morning requests to assess fraud claims at a blistering pace and ultimately find definitive evidence about the role voter fraud played in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Multiple subpoenas later, Block reveals the truth about being one of the few professionals hired to prove the Trump Campaign’s allegation that voter fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 presidential election. He explains what the voter data tells us and exposes the sobering truth that our federal elections are operating on hundreds, if not thousands, of disparate voting systems prone to error—a threat to national election integrity. Disproven is an insider’s look at the results of an inflammatory claim, a flawed system, and the changes drastically needed before the results of another election are threatened or contested.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2024

About the author

Ken Block, President of Simpatico Software Systems, Inc., is a software engineer and entrepreneur whose professional path led him into the messy world of politics. Ken specializes in database technologies and spearheads groundbreaking projects such as the country’s first state-wide debit card benefits system, the Lone Star Card SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program; "food stamps"), for the State of Texas. Ken also pioneered the use of relational databases for online lottery systems.

Ken leveraged his expertise to analyze waste and fraud, saving Texas more than $1 billion by uncovering flaws in that state’s benefits programs. Another project included an analysis of waste and fraud within Rhode Island's Medicare and SNAP programs.

With a fulfilling career in technology, Ken was not looking to get into politics, but the feeling that 'politics as usual' was turning into a divided, unproductive, hot mess compelled him to do so. His foray into government started with an arduous battle to establish the Moderate Party of Rhode Island in his home state. Founding this centrist party required a successful legal challenge to the constitutionality of Rhode Island’s ballot access laws, collecting tens of thousands of signatures, and patience.

Ken then embarked on two gubernatorial campaigns. The first was in 2010, as a Moderate on the ticket for the new state party he’d earned the right to create, and the second was in 2014, as a Republican. His platform for both campaigns remained consistently focused on quality-of-life issues such as education and economics. Ken lost the 2014 statewide GOP primary by 3,000 votes. Voter fraud was not to blame, and the election was not stolen.

Remaining a private citizen, Ken continued to invest his time in civic engagement. His good government advocacy work helped remove single-party voting from the Rhode Island ballot, which 37 other states had already done. This keeps voters from voting blindly by party by checking a single box on the ballot. Advocates spent over 40 years pushing for this voting reform before Ken got involved. Ken founded a nonprofit organization, WatchDogRI, through which he is working to bring a gubernatorial line-item veto to Rhode Island. This crucial check-and-balance reform in 44 states allows a governor to strike specific lines from the budget.

With all this work surrounding voting and elections, Ken became a leading expert on voter data analytics. In the past decade, he has analyzed voter data from more than 40 states (the few he has yet to analyze do not provide their data to the public) and served as an expert in legal challenges that involve voting data, voter fraud, and election integrity.

If getting into politics was an unexpected turn in Ken’s career, a phone call from the Trump campaign asking for an analysis of the 2020 presidential election was an astounding twist. Ken worked for a whirlwind of 30 days analyzing President Trump's fraud claims for the Trump 2020 campaign. At the end of this work, he found no evidence to support the claim that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election due to voting fraud. Further, Ken was able to debunk fraud claims by those advancing the Stop The Steal initiative.

Ken has received multiple subpoenas about his work for the Trump campaign. These cases include Special Counsel Jack Smith's federal investigation and District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation in Fulton County, Georgia.

Ken Block has lived in Rhode Island with his wife, two kids, and dog, Tilly, for nearly his entire adult life.

Reviews

[Gregg Amore · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former United States history and government teacher, and as Rhode Island's Secretary of State, I believe Ken Block's analysis in Disproven comes at an important time in the country's history. While Donald Trump has taken the necessary steps to be included on the Rhode Island Presidential Preference Primary ballot, I personally believe voters have ample reasons to disqualify him from ever again holding the highest office in the land.

The most egregious of these disqualifying reasons is the damage he has done to American democracy by continuing to undermine the electoral process through the Big Lie. With Disproven, Block draws on his experience in both politics and data analytics to methodically debunk the Big Lie of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

As Rhode Island's chief election's administrator, I read Block's recommendations with interest - I have made it our priority to improve the electoral process wherever we can through procedure, regulation, and law. While Block's data analyses show that the 2020 results reflect voters' will, these recommendations should be considered to ensure future results do, as well.

Gregg M. Amore
Rhode Island Secretary of State

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE MOST CONCLUSIVE ARGUMENT AGAINST ‘VOTER FRAUD’ IN THE 2020 ELECTION

Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger wrote in the Foreword to this 2024 book, “The most frequent question I heard was simple: ‘How could Trump lose Georgia?’… 33,527 voters who requested a ballot in Georgia’s 2020 primaries… didn’t participate… in the 2020 general election. Also, there were 27,559 MORE votes for … Republican congressional candidates than President Trump received in the general election. (In other words, across Georgia, 27,559 voters were willing to vote for a Republican for Congress… but not for President Trump. Additionally, there were another 27,967 ballots cast in Georgia … [that] simply left that [presidential] contest blank. President Trump lost Georgia by 11,779 votes… these numbers … don’t require any special skills in data analysis. If you can understand subtraction, you can see exactly ‘how Trump could lose Georgia.’” (Pg. 12-13)

Author Ken Block wrote in the Introduction, “There may be no better-qualified person to discuss whether voter fraud impacted the 2020 presidential election than the person hired by the Trump campaign to find it. I am that person… While I am currently a registered Republican, I founded a centrist political party… the Moderate Party---in 2009 because I could not stand what partisan politics was doing to our country… My motivation for writing this book is to attempt to inject hard data into the national conversation regarding voter fraud and how we conduct our elections… Former President Trump has turned losing with grace into losing with disgrace. He has spawned a group of losing candidates who would rather howl about voter fraud---without justification---than display the leadership qualities demanded by the positions for which they ran… For these folks, the end goal has nothing to do with winning an election. It is about raising money or profile---or worse, about undermining our republic.” (Pg. 15-16)

He continues, “Millions of dollars have been spent looking for massive voter fraud, and dozens of court cases have been filed claiming massive voter fraud---all to no avail. As of the writing of this book, no evidence of organized, massive voter fraud has been discovered or documented anywhere in the United States. That said, the infrastructure with which we conduct our elections can be described, at best, as disjointed and, at worst, seriously lacking.” (Pg. 17)

He summarizes, “I was paid by the Trump campaign to look for evidence of massive voter fraud. I did so… I left no stone unturned. No evidence---at all---of massive voter fraud was discovered… And yet, to this day, former President Trump, failed politicians such as Kari Lake, and hangers-on such as Mike Lindell … talk about massive voter fraud as if it has been proven many times over. It is critical to set the record straight regarding voter fraud and the results of the 2020 election: it has never been proven, and most certainly had no role in impacting the results of the 2020 presidential election. The claim that voter fraud was the cause of former president Trump’s 2020 election loss has been disproven. Enough already.” (Pg. 20)

He begins Chapter 1, “The call came … the day after the 2020 election… [from] Alex Cannon, a lawyer for the Trump campaign… he asked if I would look for voter fraud… I wanted to make sure it was known that … I did not think it likely that I would find fraud sufficient to alter the outcome… The contract was signed on November 5, 2020.” (Pg. 23-25)

He explains, “If it seems odd to you that the Trump campaign contracted me to look for voter fraud when I told them it was unlikely to be found, you are probably unaware that there were (at least) two legal camps when it came to litigating the election. One camp consisted of the lawyers employed by the Trump campaign in early November… young professionals who had most of their careers ahead of them… they were unwilling to risk their reputations and careers on false claims and lawsuits. The other group consisted of more reckless lawyers, including Rudy Guiliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell, who legally pursued wildly false and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud… Guiliani’s legal team took over all aspects of election litigation … as my project wound down.” (Pg. 31)

He says of Kari Lake’s claims, “The top statewide vote-getter in Arizona in 2022… was a Republican. Kimberly Yee… garnered 1,390,135 votes in her winning race… Lake lost her race for governor by more than 17,000 after netting 1,270,774 votes. Lake is trying to claim that a bizarre fraud … somehow spared Yee in her race for governor, which … [is] nonsense. Yee earned over 119,000 more votes than Lake in 2022. Notably, every statewide Republican candidate in Arizona but Yee embraced election conspiracy theories---and lost… Republicans can clearly win statewide elections in Arizona, but not by embracing far-out conspiracy theories.” (Pg. 35)

He admits, “People sometimes … [engage in] double voting in two states… [or] in the same state. There is no national infrastructure to identify instances of double voting, but voting twice in a federal election is a felony… with severe consequences… when I find duplicate votes, roughly 60 percent of the duplicate ballots are cast by voters registered as Republicans… Double voting appears to be a crime of privilege---those who can afford to own two homes are usually the ones who double vote.” (Pg. 38-39) He also explains, “The most likely explanation when two people with the same name and birth date cast a vote is that those are two different people, not one person committing a felony---more than 90 percent of the time.” (Pg. 43) Later, he adds, “Most of the claimed instances of a dead voter casting a mail ballot … [were] voters who cast a valid mail ballot and then died before Election Day… These voters passed away while their vote was in transit.” (Pg. 54) He admits, “noncitizen voting does happen, at least in small quantities… But the big question is: Do enough noncitizens vote to impact the results?” (Pg. 73-74)

He notes, “The Wisconsin absentee voter file did not contain information about votes cast in person on Election Day… The fraud claim was based on the reported … vote count of nearly 3,200,000 votes, but the data file they used lacked information for … 600,000 votes that were cast in person on the day of the election. The volunteers concluded that monumental voter fraud was the best possible explanation for the discrepancy... How is it possible that no one involved in making this claim stopped to ponder whether a reason other than fraud could explain this wild finding? Confirmation bias. There is no better explanation… Rational and intelligent people … exclusively search for information that confirms their existing beliefs, reject information that undermines their views… Confirmation bias drives how and where folks get their news… Social media plays a huge role in deepening confirmation bias’s hold on us… I passed my analysis of the Wisconsin volunteers’ claim back up the line. I never heard anything more about it.” (Pg. 49-50)

Turning to Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, he reports, “Powell is infamously attached to a set of election lawsuits she named the Kraken. She hyped these lawsuits as the ultimate proof of election fraud… The Kraken lawsuits were filed… they were filled with errors, typos, and raw read meat for followers of QAnon and others … In Michigan, Powell’s Kraken lawsuit flopped spectacularly… [The] Federal court judge … sanctioned Powell… for basing the case on unsubstantiated claims not backed by law or evidence… Powell quietly withdrew the Kraken lawsuits in Georgia… But for sure, Powell made a fortune while angering the federal judiciary with empty lawsuits…. Powell’s nonprofit legal group had raised more than $16 million in the year after the election.” (Pg. 57-58)

He notes, “The prosecuted cases of voter fraud where a vote was cast in the name of a deceased person… were not part of some industrialized voter fraud operation; they were family members choosing to commit a voting crime using their deceased family member’s identity… these deceased votes [illustrate]… a significant weakness in our election infrastructure---the inability to identify and remove dead voters… While some states do a reasonably good job of … removing dead voters, many more do not.” (Pg. 93-94)

He points out, “on September 3, 2020, President Trump told his supporters to try to vote twice, once by mail and then in person… Trump suggested attempting to vote twice as a way to stress-test voting systems, but what he was encouraging people to do was to try to cast illegal votes. I have no doubt that many of his supporters tried to commit felonious fraud due to this request… some of those fraudulent votes [may] have been cast and counted.” (Pg. 98)

He summarizes, “Cannon knew we did not find any evidence of substantial voter fraud… He said so many times to the January 6 Committee. He said so to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff… The unavoidable truth is that I looked for and failed to find fraud sufficient to overturn any election result. The Berkeley Research Group also looked for and could not find evidence of substantial voter fraud in their work for the Trump campaign… I disproved multiple claims of voter fraud… This was well understood up the chain of command within the Trump campaign.” (Pg. 111-112) He states, “Trump’s vote margin in the blue states was 4.08% LOWER than his 2016 margin.” (Pg. 133) He adds, “The 2020 race in Arizona was amazingly close. The state endured an intense focus on voter and election fraud after the election, which found no substantial fraud (remember Cyber Ninjas, who got paid millions and found nothing substantively wrong with the election?) There are plenty of viable reasons why Biden squeaked out a victory that do not include voter fraud.” (Pg. 138)

He reports, “Trump’s bad news is clearly not the Georgia GOP’s bad news… GOP governor Brian Kemp won in 2022… GOP secretary of state Brad Raffensperger won 52.23%.... against his Democratic challenger. And of course, Herschel Walker lost his US Senate runoff election against the Democratic incumbent… What is the difference between Kemp, Raffensperger, and Walker? Only Walker embraced election conspiracy theories.” (Pg. 148)

He observes, “Many more mail ballots were cast in 2020 than in 2016, for which we can thank COVID-19. President Trump received more mail ballot votes in 2020 than in 2016, although as a percentage of the vote, he got a smaller share in 2020… Trump’s lower percentage of the mail ballot vote in 2020 was likely because he exhorted his base not to vote by mail.” (Pg. 182)

This book will be absolute “must reading” for anyone studying the 2020 election.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ken Block was hired by the Trump campaign to find proof of voter fraud in 6 swing states. What Block found instead was no proof of widespread fraud and instead found proof that Trump had lost ground among Republican voters.

In this book Block details his work for the Trump campaign, his assessment of the election voting data, the problems inherent in analyzing election voting data and some solutions to these problems.

Block expertly presents the data in a straightforward manner and the result is a very readable book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in how elections are run in America and voting data in general.

[John Litvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Block was hired by the Trump campaign to prove voter fraud. He charged them over $750,000 and found negligible fraud. He was smart enough to get paid before he did his work since Trump likes to stiff his help. Ken writes in detail how he checked many things in the swing states and there is nothing close to fraud. He does have suggestions to improve our elections and security, which should be implemented.

[Mike Corcoran · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a data geek, I loved this book. It is not for everyone. But if you want to learn how our election system works (and doesn’t work) as well as how to assess its integrity, this is the book for you. The author’s straightforward data driven analysis is a breath of fresh air in this highly politicized time.

[Robert Solomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review by Robert Solomon

We are quickly approaching a critical milestone for our country – the election of our executive leader, the President of the United States. Who should be elected has always been a contentious discussion, but rarely has the discussion been so heated and filled with divisiveness as it is now. There are many contested issues, but none more contentious than the results of the last presidential election. One third of American voters believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election (2/3 of Republican voters believe this). Are there any factual bases for this belief other than the incessant claims of Donald Trump and his minions?

The Trump Campaign hired two main firms to seek out voter fraud in key swing states, The Berkley Research Group and Simpatico Software Systems. Simpatico is headed by Ken Block, the author of this book, and he comprehensively explains why Trump lost the election and why voter fraud was not the cause of his loss. The Carl Sagan Principle maintains that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence (sometimes shortened to ECREE).” Asserting that our presidential election was stolen is an example of such an extraordinary claim. Unlike Trump and his mob, who rely on rumor, misinformation, and outright lies for their “evidence,” Ken Block uses carefully researched facts and data to prove that the last presidential election was not stolen.

If you want to obtain a comprehensible understanding of the results of the last presidential election – READ THIS BOOK!

Ken Block dedicates his book to “facts, empirical and irrefutable, hoping that they help to inform the impassioned debate.” Who is better to perform an analysis of “whether voter fraud impacted the 2020 presidential election than the person hired by Trump campaign to find it.” Ken is a database and data analytics expert (many years ago, he worked in my software development organization at GTECH Corporation). His specialty is “digging into large datasets,” determining “what questions can be answered by that data and then letting it take him wherever it leads.” He has “processed and analyzed” election data from almost every state over the last decade. BTW: he is also a registered Republican.

The book discusses the various obstacles that must be overcome to determine if voter fraud occurred and presents the data that clearly shows that there was none. The assertions by the Trump campaign were the result of poor data interpretation, errors, and wishful thinking.

The book does not state that there was no fraud, it states that there was insufficient fraud to change the results of the election. It also does not mean that there are no problems with our election systems. The book identifies the key problems, such as data consistency between the states, e.g.: each state has its own policies and procedures for collecting voting. Thus, the same data may not be available in each state, thus making cross state analysis difficult.

The book continues with some commonsense solutions to improve our voting systems, such as national rules for data collection and the elimination of gerrymandering.

All in all, this book is a great read. It has the elements of a “Who dunnit” as well as insights into the data analysis required to accurately assess an election.  It provides an explanation of the challenges of analyzing election data and how to work through them. It clearly explains where the Trump campaign’s assertion of the Big Steal was wrong and why they were wrong using verifiable facts and data.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mary Kesson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who runs around sharing an opinion on voter fraud would benefit from reading this book, and that applies to both those who buy into Trump's claims and those who blanketly state that there’s never any fraud. The truth is that it does happens, in small numbers, and we can definitely improve systems to control it further.

The author is not a professional nonfiction writer, so the book reads as one that was written by a guy who simply wants to explain his experience to the public. That’s okay by me.

As someone with an interest in politics and as a poll worker, I read the details about voting systems with interest. I'm skeptical that Ken's push for national standards will succeed, but I am a strong believer that certain aspects of the process need to be controlled at an appropriate level of government. Since moving back to RI from MA in the 90's, I've always been impressed by how we've stayed ahead of the (admittedly dismal) average American voting system. The old voting machines were replaced by modern paper ballots and optical scanners before hanging chads became famous. Voter id was rolled out gradually and in such a way that I think most people accepted it without much complaint. The three-ring binders of names and stickers were sunset in favor of the poll pads. And because the process is managed centrally by the state, results are available on the night of the election.

RI has a population of about a million people. The RI model puts the responsibility for voting technology, systems and equipment on the state, while the 39 cities and towns handle the non-technical logistics for election day (securing polling places, hiring poll workers, etc.). That type of model where the larger entity handles the functions that require scale and expertise seems like the best approach to me. I’m skeptical as to whether small counties can handle the technology requirements to support a modern voting system. And when I hear that some are considering hand counting ballots, I just cringe.

Voter id doesn’t just support confidence in the election process, it helps move voters through the process efficiently on election day. Voters in RI hand over a state id or license, which is scanned in to match them against the voter rolls. They review their data for accuracy and then sign on the poll pad. If you show up at the wrong precinct, the poll worker can direct you to the right location. If you’ve moved and the voting data is stale, the clerk on site can help you process necessary corrections. In my mind, you’re more likely to be robbed of your ability to vote by long lines and incompetence than by an id requirement.

Favorite tidbit: I was fascinated by the anecdotes about married couples with vacations homes who register in two states. Do they vote in the local elections in their vacation home states because they feel they deserve a vote in exchange for paying taxes? Interesting that they've convinced each other that it's legitimate.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was the 2020 election ”stolen”? The short answer: No.

But what about all the shouted stories about bogus ballots, non-citizens voting, people voting twice, and so on?

Ken Block, a Republican, and a scrupulously impartial experienced data analyst, was hired by the Trump campaign to investigate - and hopefully find - some kind of voting irregularities sufficient to challenge the election results, especially in key states such as Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, ...

He analysed, as thoroughly as possible, using the actual voter registration and ballot data, and discovered no discrepancies sufficient to challenge the election results. Again to summarize: Trump lost, fair and square.

The book takes us through what he found, state by state, county by county, ballot by ballot, what the statistics of the election can tell us - and he clearly explains as well what will remain unknown because the data simply was never collected or recorded.

His chronicle of the events and the analysis is clear and mercifully concise - without all of the unsubstantiated noise that circulated in the campaigns, the courts, and the media. We learn in detail where the voters came from and where their ballots went.

But in scrutinizing the millions of ballots, and thousands of sources reporting those ballots, he also needed to sift through the myriad laws, regulations, and procedures - state by state, county by county - that govern how a federal election is governed in America. And to summarize his findings there: how your ballot is treated - especially how an early ballot or a mail in ballot is treated - varies widely. Each state can make its own rules, or even leave those rules largely undefined.

In a final section, Block opines from a data techologist's viewpoint, what ought to be done to have a secure, robust, and fully auditable election system. A system immune to the vagaries of every losing (or even winning) candidate.

A good read. For the more curious, extensive tables give the data necessary to understand the results, and even more extensive data is reported in extensive appendices (which I didn't crawl through) [ Maybe an optional CD for the true data geek? ]

Given the morass of claims and counter claims, the book is a refreshing data-driven analysis of the furor that was the 2020 election and its aftermath.

[Steve Reeds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apolitical and exhaustive, with a roadmap for the future

This book is a must read for anyone worried about the decline of trust in our federal government, for those on the left and on the right. If you're looking for a lot of Trump-bashing, you won't find it here. What you will find are shocking details of how inadequate our voting system is. It doesn't take much to imagine how savvy political players could spin those inadequacies into stories about fraud that would put into question every election forever more.

Written by a self-proclaimed Republican, Ken Block does an amazing job showing how the frenzy over fraudulent votes cast in the 2020 presidential election was totally unwarranted. With meticulous and exhaustive detail, with accompanying charts and graphs, Ken goes state by state, county by county, to dismiss the claims of massive fraud made after the election. Does he sometimes get into the weeds with the data? Yep! That's the only way to definitively put to rest all the conspiracy theories and rumors.

Unfortunately, I think there is a large swath of American voters who will never read this book because they've invested so much effort into believing the Big Steal, no matter what facts get presented to the contrary. But even for those who may never accept the results of the 2020 election, there is a super important chapter dedicated to them: how to improve the integrity of our elections. Chapter 30 "Proposals for Change" lists 9 specific proposals that lay out how to make sure votes are counted correctly and transparently.

As confidence in our government rapidly devolves, we need to re-establish trust in our elections. Without that, the Great American Experiment is over. Immigration, health care, crime, economy, climate change, wars - all other issues are moot until EVERYONE is confident that the people in charge of addressing those issues truly represent us. Let's hope Mr. Block's suggestions on ways to improve our voting systems are picked up by Congress, and fast.

I contacted my Congressman after reading this book.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anxious over the current election, so read about the last election in 2020. Ken Block was hired by the Trump campaign to data mine for election fraud. He found none that would have affected the outcome of the election, and told them so - the lawyers who hired him seem to have listened, but the fruitcakes like Giuliani and Sidney Powell carried on grifting.

The actual parts when he explains his research were quite short and up front. He looked into duplicate voters, dead voters, non-citizen voting. He explains how data difficulties (such as lack of full date-of-birth information) make it hard to tell whether there was fraud, especially within the relatively short timeframe to dispute the outcome, but also makes it clear that it's incredibly unlikely. In particular, he did what research was possible with the full datasets in 2023 (3 years later), and still found very little fraud. What actual fraud he did find was committed by...drumroll...individual Republicans.

My favourite bit was actually the chapter on Benford's Law, which is a neat little statistical trick that I have always liked. I particularly appreciated how he resolved the issue in a very elegant way. (The "fraud" claim was that PA's precinct vote counts violated Benford's Law; he showed that their populations also did so it was natural that their vote counts, which would follow population sizes, also would.)

Once we are past these analyses, he goes on to explain his own hypotheses for why Trump lost: namely, an erosion of his own 2016 support, plus some third-party spoilerage. Then he goes into his recommendations for how voting can be made more transparent, a lot of which is about better and more uniform reporting of voter roll information and election results. He also wishes that the US had a better kind of ID than SSN, which is already thoroughly compromised (and which not all voters have registered, apparently).

All in all, he came off as very reasonable and measured, and the US would do well to take the majority of his recommendations into account. The US desperately needs a voter protection bill; perhaps it could be paired with election integrity measures.

[Craig Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I must admit I'm a political junkie. Living in Rhode Island for more than 20 years now, it's been difficult as a moderate. Then I met Ken Block in 2009 and I realized there was a movement underfoot for people like me. I have been a fan of Ken's mind and integrity for many years now.

When I first heard about a book delving into the available facts about all the voter fraud claims by the Trump campaign (even Rudy!), I had to buy it. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was written by Ken Block. My first reaction was, "so that's what he's been up to". My next was "finally someone has gotten to the truth".

I've finished "Disproven" in two days. It lays out the history of Ken's engagement by the Trump campaign and it got straight to the main issue , "Did Fraud Cause Trump's Loss?" Ken's writing style makes for an easy read and you don't need to be a statistician to understand the tables and analysis.

The last section of "Disproven" is what I found myself breezing through and then reading again. Ken is basically providing our nation with the roadmap for building a fair election system and the requisite infrastructure. His Nine proposals for change leading to better elections should become a key lesson plan for every high school's Civics curriculum.

I encourage everyone who wonders how our election system can be improved ro read "Disproven". You will be better informed to join the discussion.

May the truth win out!!

Craig Evans
Bristol, RI

Disproven: My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections

[Matthew Keck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more an exercise in pundit-level discourse than interesting/thoughtful analysis. He spends a lot of time going through voter fraud claims surrounding people casting multiple votes and dead people voting - this is a political hot topic but this is really deconstructing a popular, yet very weak argument. So, that's cool and all, but not thought provoking.

Part 2 is interesting because Ken confronts the limitations of the accessible data for discussing mail in votes. This is where things become compelling because we can't disprove claims of fraud and we don't have a comparable frame of reference to access. This is a big problem, and I'm really glad Ken was willing to take the stance of epistemological skepticism here.

Other than that, it's just ok. The real issue is that the most fascinating questions related to elections/election security are very challenging to think about. I would have loved to learn about the auditing structures in these states, audit results that were disclosed (and which states do not disclose audit results!), and where it would be challenging to know if malfeasance did occur because of the lack of transparency.

Unfortunately, this is really a deep dive into the superficial elements of voter fraud that are popular (noise) without having a novel, honest evaluation of the lack of ability for private individuals to audit an election (signal). But overall, he does support more transparency from states, so that's nice. Better than some recent books on elections (at least there aren't any overt lies in here), it just takes an angle that emphasizes the least important type of fraud that could of happened in 2020. By taking on the talking points of the right, he pushes back on a lot of points correctly. Unfortunately, I don't think this brought us any closer to the truth of what happened since seemingly crucial elements of the election weren't even touched on. Bummer.

[Sam Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In clear, concise language Block describes the voting ecosystem in the United States. How it is a mis-mash of federal, state, and local laws and how those laws prevent voting results from being audited or certified in a timely fashion. This is not to say he found any evidence the voting system was subjected to fraud on a scale capable of changing national elections - he did not. Block does make a series of recommendations to improve the system's ability to be audited in a timely fashion and to make it more resistent to fraud. Some suggestions can be implemented quickly, others will take a much longer time frame. All will require persons of good will to be involved, and he is optimistic concerning the outcome.

This is an important book. I came to realize in 2000 with Bush v. Gore that neither party was interested in improving the system we have of counting votes. From bad and confusing ballot design, to gerrymandered voting districts, inconsistencies in numbers of voting machines between precincts it is clear various actors seek to rig the system to their benefit rather than building a system that accurately counts votes of the electorate. This book shows the ugly warts, and how things can be improved.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read. Chock full of valuable information, this is a book everyone of voting age (and especially those who make voting laws) should read. Unfortunately many of the people -- like the sore loser election deniers -- won't read it. They are incapable of hearing the truth and that is sad because voting, as Mr. Block points out in far better words that I am using, is the basic foundation of how we can live our lives, the foundation of our democracy.

Block intersperses his personal journey running for office with his business in the telling of his investigation into whether or not the 2020 election had fraud. His work is data driven and while much explanation of what data can mean can be difficult for the lay person to understand, he lays it out in an understandable language that anyone can understand. Every once in awhile he offers a glimpse into his sense of humor that adds to the dimension of this fabulous book. He explains the various forms of voting, how different states handle voting and offers solutions for the future. The book is much more than that and Block lays it out in a comprehensive manner without overdoing a word or page count.

[Sean Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Block was hired by the team for the corrupt rapist orange thug to check for election fraud and of course found it was all bogus, but he made some valid points about the nonsensical nature of American elections, his conclusions were sometimes flawed:
Two things stand out
- Preferential voting (called rank choice voting by the septics who always Gove things dumb names is a good way of electing, is simple, and if he had of looked outside the USA say to Australia then he would have found loads of scientific data.
- America does not need a bi-partisan election committees, it needs a non-partisan, all people in the public or civil service should be apolitical and even if they are registered for one party, they serve the government of the day.
It was a good solid read, a bit dry in parts, naturally, but no sensationalism and it once again showed the orange creature is a fraud and a liar and should never be let anywhere near public office.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a math person myself, I appreciated the way Ken Block approached this topic, breaking down the numbers for us and spelling out how there wasn't significant fraud detected in the 2020 election. Hearing about how our presidential elections work was crazy...I agree with him that we really need more formal, federal guidelines about our elections because right now each state has its own rules. I suppose this makes sense for state and town elections, but not so much so for federal ones.

I'm rating this 3 stars because, while the information contained within was very interesting, there is so much repetitive information in this book. The writing was serviceable, maybe not the best nonfiction writing I've read, but not bad. I listened to this one on audiobook and it was a fine, enlightening listen.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is much more in this book than the specific work Ken Block did for the Trump 2020 campaign. The book is a layman's guide to our voter registration system as managed by all of the states and the different ways it is collected and managed.

The book was accessible and easy to follow. Technology has created the path to improve the integrity of the voter registration record, the mail-in absentee ballot and other issues that impact absentee and in-person voting. We will see how earnest state election boards are to improve their record-keeping processes to help restore people's faith in our voting and election process. The Trump 2020 campaign claims made these major issues in elections and Blocks recommendations seek to address the flaws, which will hopefully restore confidence in the final results of an election.

This is one of the best books I've read this year.

[Marty Vik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely objective review based on facts

I have wanted to debate election integrity with people but have had concerns that it will be more argument than conversation. Mr Block lays out information backed by data. He also pointed out where inconsistency between states makes comparison difficult, but is clear the differences are not because of fraud. Finally, he proposes several approaches that would provide better, consistent election data that could prove election integrity going forward. That is what our elected officials should be debating and implementing.

[Sharon Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye Opener

This book was an eye opener for me. I knew some of how elections are ran, but Ken Block describes how they are ran across the country, and some of the challenges. He does discuss why there was no significant voter fraud in the 2020 election, but I also found the surrounding information that he gave interesting. He came across as knowledgeable about the election processes. I would encourage everyone to read this book regardless of which party you are affiliated with.

[Doug Trani · Rating 5 out of 5]

More important than disproving Trump's claims of election fraud in 2020 is the analysis of the problems with the electoral process and the recommendations for rectifying them. There was no massive voter fraud in 2020, but the federal election process is far from perfect. Both of the major parties are perpetuating this flawed system and only by working together can both parties fix it. I am not optimistic that they will, but Ken Block lays down the yellow brick road if they have the courage and the will to follow it.

[Brian Rothbart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this book closer to 3 stars, but I want to commend Ken Block for writing this important book and explaining through data that the 2020 election was not stolen as there was not enough voter fraud that would have cost Trump the election.

The book is quite repetitive and probably could have been done in 150 pages.

Block does lay out some of the possible flaws in how states manage their elections, which is something we should look at.

[Sue Koontz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be Required Reading

I found this book quite interesting. Ken Block was hired by the Trump campaign to find voter fraud in the 2020 election. As the title implies - he found none. I learned more about our voting system from this book than any class I ever took in school. Our system needs reforms and Ken Block supplies some great recommendations at the end of the book. A must read for those interesting in making our system fair and transparent.

[Anusha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am surprised that this book is not getting more traction. Ken Block was hired by the Trump Administration to prove voter fraud in 6 states. He did not find any proof of that. However, what he did find proof of was that Trump is actually losing support of many Republicans and the amount of misinformation that is being spread to polarize our elections, harming minorities and truly, all Americans alike. Thank you to Ken Block, Forefront Books, and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Luca Bares · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a thorough job analyzing the claims of fraudulent voter data based on analysis of voter data after the election. It's an interesting look at a tangled voting system with tons of great empirical data and solid analysis.

It's not a full look at our election process and leaves out topics like the security of voting methods or the integrity of voting machines. However, in terms of the topics this book attempts to cover, it does it completely.

[Btwitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really glad I read this. It not only shows that Trump's claim's that the election was stollen are totally unfounded and that there is no there there. In all the reports of fraud it was clear that nobody had really done any leg work to find real evidence.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Elections in our country need to be fair. As I have demonstrated in this book, they are not in many ways -but not because they are fraudulent... We have allowed partisan elected officials to slowly but effectively make our elections uncompetitive."

[Merideth Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much info. Clearly explained, in an irrefutable way. So interesting.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent analysis, points out several legitimate concerns with elections that Congress could fix.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbiased is key word. He was by Trump group to verify/disprove voter fraud.