SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- More than 20 states across the country are pushing for Voter ID laws claiming concerns over voter fraud but election officials say it's not really a problem in Santa Barbara County.
Back in the 2008 election there was a case of alleged voter fraud brought to the attention of Santa Barbara County election officials but they found it had no merit.
In a close race for the Santa Barbara County Supervisor for the Santa Ynez Valley, Doreen Farr beat opponent Steve Pappas by 805 votes.
Pappas challenged the win claiming voter fraud.
"There were over 13,000 votes cast," says Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters Joe Holland.
"And we went through it with a fine tooth comb and we didn't see one incident of voter fraud."
The Superior Court ruled against Pappas in 2009, saying there was little evidence to back up his claim.
One way the County prevents voter fraud is by using an Automatic Signature Recognition machine that matches up the signature on the voter registration envelop to the signature on the voter's registration card before recording the vote.
Holland says so far the process has been working.
"We really look for voter fraud in and I have to tell you, we see very little if any voter fraud in the county," says Holland.
And now with online voter registration added to the mix in California, Holland says the department still needs to be on it's game.
"It's important people know how elections are done and its my job to make sure there isn't any voter fraud," says Holland.
