In the days and weeks leading up to Election Day, Republicans and their allies across the country were up in arms over the massive voter fraud they were insisting that Democrats were engaging in.

Of course, what they were really doing was laying the groundwork to intimidate likely Democrats (especially people of color) from voting and to de-legitimize an Election Day result that didn’t go their way. As we know, Election Day did go their way. So what happened to all the voter fraud they warned us about? Demos issued a report yesterday, Voting in 2010: Lessons Learned, which discusses a range of issues relating to voter access and election administration. In the area of voter fraud:

The fraud allegation frenzy had its intended effect in 2010. It encouraged certain activist groups and individuals to take up the bogus anti-fraud cause. As has been well documented, Tea Party groups across the nation set up “poll watch” operations where they planned to engage in activities that would interfere with the voters at the polling places, perhaps to the point of crossing the line into illegality. Some members of these groups may not have always been aware of the allowed parameters of behavior. True the Vote in Texas formed the blueprint during early voting when many of its members allegedly started confrontations and harassed voters in Houston. Activists in multiple states then took on the cause. Groups encouraged members to undertake blatantly intimidating activities like photographing and videotaping voters and following them around. Unprecedented numbers of poll watchers showed up at polling sites in communities of color. One group even offered a $500 reward for vote fraud tips.

Fortunately, on Election Day itself the Tea Party groups’ threats turned out to be little more than empty. There were scattered occasions of overly aggressive poll watchers, including in Minnesota, but the situations were dealt with firmly and efficiently by Election Protection workers and election administrators. Yet the climate of anxiety and antagonism the groups created in the days leading up to the election had its effect–one that was not good for voters, elections officers, or democracy, and were completely unnecessary.

Also noteworthy after Election Day had come and gone was the sudden silence from the fraud-mongerers and Tea Party poll watch groups. Not a peep of one case of substantiated fraud at the polling place. Even Fox News decided to cancel a special report on voter fraud it had planned on Nevada because there was no fraud.

Does anyone doubt that if the Democrats had had a better night, that we’d be hearing nonstop from the right wing about voter fraud? Funny how that works.