Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to aselection manipulation,voter fraud, orvote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of anelection, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both.[1] It differs from but often goes hand-in-hand withvoter suppression. What exactly constitutes electoral fraud varies from country to country, though the goal is oftenelection subversion.
Electoral legislation outlaws many kinds of election fraud,[2] but other practices violate general laws, such as those banningassault,harassment orlibel. Although technically the term "electoral fraud" covers only those acts which are illegal, the term is sometimes used to describeacts which are legal, but considered morally unacceptable, outside the spirit of an election or in violation of the principles ofdemocracy.[3][4]Show elections, featuring only one candidate, are sometimes classified[by whom?] as electoral fraud, although they may comply with the law and are presented more as referendums/plebiscites.
In national elections, successful electoral fraud on a sufficient scale can have the effect of acoup d'état,[citation needed]protest[5] orcorruption of democracy. In anarrow election, a small amount of fraud may suffice to change the result. Even if the outcome is not affected, the revelation of fraud can reduce voters' confidence in democracy.
Because U.S. states have primary responsibility for conducting elections, including federal elections, many forms of electoral fraud are prosecuted as state crimes. State election offenses include voter impersonation, double voting, ballot stuffing, tampering with voting machines, and fraudulent registration. Penalties vary widely by state and can include fines, imprisonment, loss of voting rights, and disqualification from holding public office.
The U.S. federal government prosecutes electoral crimes including voter intimidation, conspiracy to commit election fraud, bribery, interference with the right to vote, and fraud related to absentee ballots in federal elections.[6]
In France, someone guilty may be fined and/or imprisoned for not more than one year, or two years if the person is a public official.[7][non-primary source needed]
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Electoral fraud can occur in advance of voting if the composition of the electorate is altered. The legality of this type of manipulation varies across jurisdictions. Deliberate manipulation of election outcomes is widely considered a violation of the principles of democracy.[8]
In many cases, it is possible for authorities to artificially control the composition of an electorate in order to produce a foregone result. One way of doing this is to move a large number of voters into the electorate prior to an election, for example by temporarily assigning them land or lodging them inflophouses.[9][10] Many countries prevent this with rules stipulating that a voter must have lived in an electoral district for a minimum period (for example, six months) in order to be eligible to vote there. However, such laws can also be used for demographic manipulation as they tend todisenfranchise those with no fixed address, such as the homeless, travelers,Roma, students (studying full-time away from home), and some casual workers.
Another strategy is to permanently move people into an electoral district, usually throughpublic housing. If people eligible for public housing are likely to vote for a particular party, then they can either be concentrated into one area, thus making their votes count for less, or moved intomarginal seats, where they may tip the balance towards their preferred party. One example of this was the 1986–1990Homes for votes scandal in theCity of Westminster in England underShirley Porter.[11]
Immigration law may also be used to manipulate electoral demography. For instance,Malaysia gave citizenship to immigrants from the neighboringPhilippines andIndonesia, together with suffrage, in order for a political party to "dominate" the state ofSabah; this controversial process was known asProject IC.[12] In the United States, there have been allegations of an attempt to alter electoral demography via immigration as part of a far-rightGreat Replacement Theory conspiracy."[13]
A method of manipulatingprimary contests and other elections of party leaders are related to this. People who support one party may temporarily join another party (or vote in a crossover way, when permitted) in order to elect a weak candidate for that party's leadership. The goal ultimately is to defeat the weak candidate in the general election by the leader of the party that the voter truly supports. There were claims that this method was being utilised in theUK Labour Party leadership election in 2015, where Conservative-leaningToby Young encouragedConservatives to joinLabour and vote forJeremy Corbyn in order to "consign Labour to electoral oblivion".[14][15] Shortly after, #ToriesForCorbyntrended onTwitter.[15]
The composition of an electorate may also be altered bydisenfranchising some classes of people, rendering them unable to vote. In some cases, states had passed provisions that raised general barriers to voter registration, such aspoll taxes, literacy and comprehension tests, and record-keeping requirements, which in practice were applied against minority populations to discriminatory effect. From the turn of the century into the late 1960s, most African Americans in the southern states comprising theformer Confederacy were disenfranchised by such measures. Corrupt election officials may misuse voting regulations such as aliteracy test or requirement for proof of identity or address in such a way as to make it difficult or impossible for their targets to cast a vote. If such practices discriminate against a religious or ethnic group, they may so distort the political process that the political order becomes grossly unrepresentative, as in the post-Reconstruction orJim Crow era until theVoting Rights Act of 1965.Felons have been disenfranchised in many states as a strategy to prevent African Americans from voting.[16]
Groups may also be disenfranchised by rules which make it impractical or impossible for them to cast a vote. For example, requiring people to vote within their electorate may disenfranchise serving military personnel, prison inmates, students, hospital patients or anyone else who cannot return to their homes. Polling can be set for inconvenient days, such as midweek or on holy days of religious groups: for example onthe Sabbath or otherholy days of a religious group whose teachings determine that voting is prohibited on such a day. Communities may also be effectively disenfranchised if polling places are situated in areas perceived by voters as unsafe, or are not provided within reasonable proximity (rural communities are especially vulnerable to this).[example needed]
In some cases, voters may be invalidly disenfranchised, which is true electoral fraud. For example, a legitimate voter may be "accidentally" removed from theelectoral roll, making it difficult or impossible for the person to vote.[citation needed]
In the Canadian federal election of 1917, during theGreat War, the Canadian government, led by the Union Party, passed theMilitary Voters Act and theWartime Elections Act. TheMilitary Voters Act permitted any active military personnel to vote by party only and allowed that party to decide in which electoral district to place that vote. It also enfranchised those women who were directly related or married to an active soldier. These groups were believed to be disproportionately in favor of the Union government, as that party was campaigning in favor of conscription.[citation needed] TheWartime Elections Act, conversely, disenfranchised particular ethnic groups assumed to be disproportionately in favour of the opposition Liberal Party.[citation needed]
Stanford University professorBeatriz Magaloni described a model governing the behaviour of autocratic regimes. She proposed that ruling parties can maintain political control under a democratic system without actively manipulating votes or coercing the electorate. Under the right conditions, the democratic system is maneuvered into an equilibrium in which divided opposition parties act as unwitting accomplices to single-party rule. This permits the ruling regime to abstain from illegal electoral fraud.[17]
Preferential voting systems such asscore voting andsingle transferable vote, and in some cases,instant-runoff voting, can reduce the impact of systemic electoral manipulation andpolitical duopoly.[18][19]
Voter intimidation involves putting undue pressure on a voter or group of voters so that they will vote a particular way, or not at all.[20]Absentee and otherremote voting can be more open to some forms of intimidation as the voter does not have the protection and privacy of the polling location. Intimidation can take a range of forms including verbal, physical, or coercion. This was so common that in 1887, a Kansas Supreme Court inNew Perspectives on Election Fraud in The Gilded Age said "[...] physical retaliation constituted only a slight disturbance and would not vitiate an election."
In its simplest form, voters from a particular demographic or known to support a particular party or candidate are directly threatened by supporters of another party or candidate or by those hired by them. In other cases, supporters of a particular party make it known that if a particular village or neighborhood is found to have voted the 'wrong' way, reprisals will be made against that community. Another method is to make a general threat of violence, for example, abomb threat which has the effect of closing a particular polling place, thus making it difficult for people in that area to vote.[21] One notable example of outright violence was the1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, where followers ofBhagwan Shree Rajneesh deliberately contaminated salad bars inThe Dalles, Oregon, in an attempt to weaken political opposition during county elections. Historically, this tactic includedLynching in the United States to terrorize potential African American voters in some areas.[citation needed]
Polling places in an area known to support a particular party or candidate may be targeted for vandalism, destruction or threats, thus making it difficult or impossible for people in that area to vote.[citation needed]
In this case, voters will be made to believe, accurately or otherwise, that they are not legally entitled to vote, or that they are legally obliged to vote a particular way. Voters who are not confident about their entitlement to vote may also be intimidated by real or implied authority figures who suggest that those who vote when they are not entitled to will be imprisoned, deported or otherwise punished.[22][23]
For example, in 2004, in Wisconsin and elsewhere voters allegedly received flyers that said, "If you already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the Presidential Election", implying that those who had voted in earlier primary elections were ineligible to vote. Also, "If anybody in your family has ever been found guilty of anything you can't vote in the Presidential Election." Finally, "If you violate any of these laws, you can get 10 years in prison and your children will be taken away from you."[24][25]
Employers can coerce the voters' decision, through strategies such as explicit or implicit threats of job loss.[26]
People may distribute false or misleading information in order to affect the outcome of an election.[3] For example, in theChilean presidential election of 1970, the U.S. government'sCentral Intelligence Agency used "black propaganda"—materials purporting to be from various political parties—to sow discord between members of a coalition between socialists and communists.[27]
Another method, allegedly used inCook County, Illinois, in 2004, is to falsely tell particular people that they are not eligible to vote[23] In 1981 in New Jersey, theRepublican National Committee created theBallot Security Task Force to discourage voting among Latino and African-American citizens of New Jersey. The task force identified voters from an old registration list and challenged their credentials. It also paid off-duty police officers to patrol polling sites in Newark and Trenton, and posted signs saying that falsifying a ballot is a crime.[28]
Another use ofdisinformation is to give voters incorrect information about the time or place of polling, thus causing them to miss their chance to vote. As part of the2011 Canadian federal election voter suppression scandal,Elections Canada traced fraudulent phone calls, telling voters that their polling stations had been moved, to a telecommunications company that worked with theConservative Party.[29]
Similarly in the United States, right-wingpolitical operativesJacob Wohl andJack Burkman were indicted on several counts of bribery and election fraud in October 2020 regarding a voter disinformation scheme they undertook in the months prior to the2020 United States presidential election.[30] The pair hired a firm to make nearly 85,000robocalls that targeted minority neighborhoods in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan, and Illinois. LikeDemocratic constituencies in general that year, minorities voted overwhelmingly byabsentee ballot, many judging it a safer option during theCOVID-19 pandemic than in-person voting.[31] Baselessly, the call warned potential voters if they submitted their votes by mail that authorities could use theirpersonal information against them, including threats of police arrest for outstanding warrants and forced debt collection by creditors.[32]
On October 24, 2022,Wohl andBurkman pleaded guilty inCuyahoga County, OhioCommon Pleas Court to one count each of felony telecommunications fraud.[33] Commenting on the tactic of using disinformation to suppress voter turnout,Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley said the two men had "infringed upon the right to vote", and that "by pleading guilty, they were held accountable for their un-American actions."[34]
False claims of electoral fraud can be used as a basis for attempting to overturn an election. During and after the2020 presidential election, incumbent PresidentDonald Trump made numerousallegations of electoral fraud by supporters ofDemocratic candidateJoe Biden. The Trump campaign lost numerous legal challenges to the results.[36][37][38][39]President of BrazilJair Bolsonaro also made numerous claims of electoral fraud without evidence during and after the2022 Brazilian presidential election.[40]
Dead people voting refers to instances where ballots are fraudulently cast in the name of deceased individuals. While concerns about this type of electoral fraud often arise, studies suggest that such cases are extremely rare. In many democratic systems, safeguards exist to prevent this, such as regularly updating voter rolls and requiring identification at polling stations. However, in some cases, fraudulent actors may exploit outdated records or use the identification of deceased individuals to attempt illegal voting.[41]
In Indonesia, dead people voting occurred during the2020 local elections[41] and the2024 general election.[42] There have been similar incidents reported in smaller regional elections.[43]
Elections which allownon-citizen suffrage ormultiple citizenship can violate theone person, one vote principle if one person votes in multiple countries.[44] TheEuropean Union has implemented safeguards against one person voting in more than one country throughelectoral roll information exchange.[45]
Vote buying occurs when a political party or candidate seeks to buy the vote of a voter in an upcoming election. Vote buying can take various forms such as a monetary exchange, as well as an exchange for necessary goods or services.[46]
A list of threats to voting systems, or electoral fraud methods considered as sabotage are kept by theNational Institute of Standards and Technology.[47]
Ballot papers may be used to discourage votes for a particular party or candidate, using the design or other features which confuse voters into voting for a different candidate. For example, in the2000 U.S. presidential election, Florida'sbutterfly ballot paper was criticized as poorly designed, leading some voters to vote for the wrong candidate. While the ballot itself was designed by a Democrat, it was the Democratic candidate,Al Gore, who was most harmed by voter errors because of this design.[48] Poor or misleading design is usually not illegal and therefore not technically election fraud, but it can nevertheless subvert the principles of democracy.[citation needed]
Sweden has a system with separate ballots used for each party, to reduce confusion among candidates. However, ballots from small parties such asPiratpartiet,Junilistan andFeministiskt initiativ have been omitted or placed on a separate table in the election to the EU parliament in 2009.[49] Ballots fromSweden Democrats have been mixed with ballots from the largerSwedish Social Democratic Party, which used a very similar font for the party name written on the top of the ballot.[citation needed]
Another method of confusing people into voting for a different candidate from the one intended is to run candidates or create political parties with similar names or symbols to an existing candidate or party. The goal is to mislead voters into voting for the false candidate or party.[50] Such tactics may be particularly effective when many voters have limited literacy in the language used on the ballot. Again, such tactics are usually not illegal but they often work against the principles of democracy.[citation needed]
Another possible source of electoral confusion is multiple variations of voting by differentelectoral systems. This may cause ballots to be counted as invalid if the wrong system is used. For instance, if a voter puts afirst-past-the-post cross in a numberedsingle transferable vote ballot paper, it is invalidated. For example, in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom, up to three different voting systems and types of ballots may be used, based on the jurisdictional level of the election.Local elections are determined bysingle transferable votes;Scottish parliamentary elections by theadditional member system; and UK Parliamentary elections byfirst-past-the-post.[citation needed]
Ballot stuffing, or "ballot-box stuffing", is the illegal practice of one person submitting multipleballots during avote in which only one ballot per person is permitted.
Votes may be misrecorded at source, on a ballot paper or voting machine, or later in misrecording totals. The2019 Malawian general election was nullified by the Constitutional Court in 2020 because many results were changed by use of correction fluid, as well as duplicate, unverified and unsigned results forms.[62][63] California allows correction fluid and tape, so changes can be made after the ballot leaves the voter.[64]
Where votes are recorded through electronic or mechanical means, the voting machinery may be altered so that a vote intended for one candidate is recorded for another, or electronic results are duplicated or lost, and there is rarely evidence whether the cause was fraud or error.[65][66][67]
Many elections feature multiple opportunities for unscrupulous officials or 'helpers' to record an elector's vote differently from their intentions. Voters who require assistance to cast their votes are particularly vulnerable to having their votes stolen in this way. For example, a blind or illiterate person may be told that they have voted for one party when in fact they have been led to vote for another.[citation needed]
Proxy voting is particularly vulnerable to election fraud, due to the amount of trust placed in the person who casts the vote. In several countries, there have been allegations of retirement home residents being asked to fill out 'absentee voter' forms. When the forms are signed and gathered, they are secretly rewritten as applications for proxy votes, naming party activists or their friends and relatives as the proxies. These people, unknown to the voter, cast the vote for the party of their choice. In theUnited Kingdom, this is known as 'granny farming.'[68]
One of methods of electoral fraud is to destroy ballots for an opposing candidate or party.
While mass destruction of ballots can be difficult to achieve without drawing attention to it, in a very close election it may be possible to destroy a small number of ballot papers without detection, thereby changing the overall result. Blatant destruction of ballot papers can render an election invalid and force it to be re-run. If a party can improve its vote on the re-run election, it can benefit from such destruction as long as it is not linked to it.[citation needed]
During theBourbon Restoration in late 19th century Spain, the organized "loss" of voting slips (pucherazo) was used to maintain the agreed alternation between the Liberals and the Conservatives. This system of local political domination, especially rooted in rural areas and small cities, was known ascaciquismo.[citation needed]
Another method is to make it appear that the voter has spoiled his or her ballot, thus rendering it invalid. Typically this would be done by adding another mark to the paper, making it appear that the voter has voted for more candidates than entitled, for instance. It would be difficult to do this to a large number of paper ballots without detection in some locales, but altogether too simple in others, especially jurisdictions where legitimate ballot spoiling by voter would serve a clear and reasonable aim: for example emulating protest votes in jurisdictions that have recently had and since abolished a "none of the above" or "against all" voting option; civil disobedience where voting is mandatory; and attempts at discrediting or invalidating an election. An unusually large share of invalidated ballots may be attributed to loyal supporters of candidates that lost in primaries or previous rounds, did not run or did not qualify to do so, or some manner of protest movement or organized boycott.[citation needed]
In 2016, during theEU membership referendum, Leave-supporting voters in the UKalleged without evidence that the pencils supplied by voting stations would allow votes to be erased from the ballot.[69][70]
Allvoting systems face threats of some form of electoral fraud. The types of threats that affectvoting machines vary.[71] Research at Argonne National Laboratories revealed that a single individual with physical access to a machine, such as a Diebold Accuvote TS, can install inexpensive, readily available electronic components to manipulate its functions.[72][73]
Other approaches include:
In 1994,the election which brought majority rule and putNelson Mandela in office, South Africa's election compilation system was hacked, so they re-tabulated by hand.[80][81][82]
In 2014, Ukraine's central election system was hacked. Officials found and removed a virus and said the totals were correct.[83]
Academic research has generally found voter impersonation to be 'exceptionally rare' in the UK.[84] TheConservative government passed theElections Act 2022, which mandated photo identification.[85][86]
Voter impersonation is considered extremely rare in the US by experts.[87] Since 2013, several states have passedvoter ID laws to counter voter impersonation. Voter ID requirements are generally popular among Americans[88][89] and proponents have argued that it can be difficult to detect voter impersonation without them.[90][91][92] Voter ID laws' effectiveness given the rarity of voter impersonation, and their potential to disenfranchise citizens without the right ID have created controversy. By August 2016, four federal court rulings (Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and North Dakota) overturned laws or parts of such laws because they placed undue burdens on minorities.[93]
Allegations of widespread voter impersonation often turn out to be false.[94] The North Carolina Board of Elections reported in 2017 that out of 4,769,640 votes cast in the November 2016 election in North Carolina, only one illegal vote would potentially have been blocked by the voter ID law. The investigation found fewer than 500 incidences of invalid ballots cast, the vast majority of which were cast by individuals on probation forfelony who were likely not aware that this status disqualified them from voting, and the total number of invalid votes was far too small to have affected the outcome of any race in North Carolina in the 2016 election.[95][96]
In particularly corrupt regimes, the voting process may be nothing more than a sham, to the point that officials simply announce whatever results they want, sometimes without even bothering to count the votes. While such practices tend to draw international condemnation, voters typically have little if any recourse, as there would seldom be any ways to remove the fraudulent winner from power, short of a revolution.[citation needed]
InTurkmenistan, incumbent PresidentGurbanguly Berdymukhamedov received 97.69% of votesin the 2017 election, with his sole opponent, who was seen as pro-government, in fact being appointed by Berdymukhamedov. InGeorgia,Mikheil Saakashvili received 96.2% of votes in the election following theRose Revolution while his allyNino Burjanadze was an interim head of state.[citation needed]
In both the United Kingdom and the United States, experts estimate that voting fraud by mail has affected only a few local elections, without likely any impact at the national level.[97][98][99][100] In April 2020, a 20-year voter fraud study by theMassachusetts Institute of Technology found the level of mail-in ballot fraud "exceedingly rare" in the United States, occurring only in "0.00006 percent" of instances nationally, and, with Oregon's mail-in-ballots, "0.000004 percent—about five times less likely than getting hit by lightning".[101]
Types of fraud have included pressure on voters from family or others, since the ballot is not always cast in secret;[99][102][103]collection of ballots by dishonest collectors who mark votes or fail to deliver ballots;[104][105] and insiders changing, challenging or destroying ballots after they arrive.[106][107]
A measure championed as a way to prevent some types of mail-in fraud has been to require the voter's signature on the outer envelope, which is compared to one or more signatures on file before taking the ballot out of the envelope and counting it.[99][108] Not all places have standards for signature review,[109]and there have been calls to update signatures more often to improve this review.[99][108] While any level of strictness involves rejecting some valid votes and accepting some invalid votes,[110] there have been concerns that signatures are improperly rejected from young and minority voters at higher rates than others, with no or limited ability of voters to appeal the rejection.[111][112]
Some problems have inherently limited scope, such as family pressure, while others can affect several percent of the vote, such as dishonest collectors[99] and overly strict signature verification.[111]
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In 2019,Elections Canada identified 103,000 non-citizens who were illegally on Canada's federal voters register.[113] It subsequently identified roughly 3,500 cases of potential non-citizens who voted in2019, but noted that it was not a coordinated effort and did not affect the result in anyriding.[114] "But almost a year after Canadians headed to the polls, the agency says it's still trying to determine how many of those cases — if any — involved non-Canadian citizens casting ballots."[114][needs update]
Illegal non-citizen voting is considered extremely rare in the United States by most experts due to the severe penalties associated with the practice including deportation, incarceration or fines in addition to jeopardizing their attempt to naturalize.[115][116][117][118] The federal form to register a voter does not require proof of citizenship,[115] though non-citizens have been found to vote only in very small numbers.[119][120][further explanation needed]
Vote fraud can also take place in legislatures. Some of the forms used in national elections can also be used in parliaments, particularly intimidation and vote-buying. Because of the much smaller number of voters, however, election fraud in legislatures is qualitatively different in many ways. Fewer people are needed to 'swing' the election, and therefore specific people can be targeted in ways impractical on a larger scale. For example,Adolf Hitler achieved hisdictatorial powers due to theEnabling Act of 1933. He attempted to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to pass the Act by arresting members of the opposition, though this turned out to be unnecessary to attain the needed majority. Later, the Reichstag was packed withNazi party members who voted for the Act's renewal.[citation needed]
In many legislatures, voting is public, in contrast to thesecret ballot used in most modern public elections. This may make their elections more vulnerable to some forms of fraud since a politician can be pressured by others who will know how the legislator voted. However, it may also protect against bribery and blackmail, since the public and media will be aware if a politician votes in an unexpected way. Since voters and parties are entitled to pressure politicians to vote a particular way, the line between legitimate and fraudulent pressure is not always clear.[citation needed]
As in public elections, proxy votes are particularly prone to fraud. In some systems, parties may vote on behalf of any member who is not present in parliament. This protects those members from missing out on voting if prevented from attending parliament, but it also allows their party to prevent them from voting against its wishes. In some legislatures, proxy voting is not allowed, but politicians may rig voting buttons or otherwise illegally cast "ghost votes" while absent.[121]
The three main strategies for the prevention of electoral fraud in society are:
Some of the main fraud prevention tactics can be summarised as secrecy and openness. Thesecret ballot prevents many kinds of intimidation and vote selling, while transparency at all other levels of the electoral process prevents and allows detection of most interference.
Electoral fraud is generally considered difficult to prove, as perpetrators are highly motivated to conceal their acts.[122][123] Researchers must often rely oninferential methods to uncover unusual patterns that could indicate election fraud, as fraud often cannot be observed directly.[124]
Election auditing refers to any review conducted after polls close for the purpose of determining whether the votes were counted accurately (a results audit) or whether proper procedures were followed (a process audit), or both.[citation needed]
Audits vary and can include checking that the number of voters signed in at the polls matches the number of ballots, seals on ballot boxes and storage rooms are intact, computer counts (if used) match hand counts, and counts are accurately totaled.[citation needed]
Election recounts are a specific type of audit, with elements of both results and process audits.[citation needed]
In the United States the goal of prosecutions is not to stop fraud or keep fraudulent winners out of office; it is to deter and punish years later. TheJustice Department has publishedFederal Prosecution of Election Offenses in eight editions from 1976 to 2017, under PresidentsFord,Carter,Reagan,Clinton, Bush andTrump. It says, "Department does not have authority to directly intercede in the election process itself. ... overt criminal investigative measures should not ordinarily be taken ... until the election in question has been concluded, its results certified, and all recounts and election contests concluded."[125][126] Sentencing guidelines provide a range of 0–21 months in prison for a first offender;[127]offense levels range from 8 to 14.[128] Investigation, prosecution and appeals can take over 10 years.[129]
In thePhilippines, formerPresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo was arrested in 2011 following the filing of criminal charges against her for electoral sabotage, in connection with the2007 Philippine general election. She was accused of conspiring with election officials to ensure the victory of her party'ssenatorial slate in the province ofMaguindanao, through the tampering of election returns.[130]
Thesecret ballot, in which only the voter knows how they have voted, is believed by many to be a crucial part of ensuringfree and fair elections through preventing voter intimidation or retribution.[131] Others argue that the secret ballot enables election fraud (because it makes it harder to verify that votes have been counted correctly)[132][133] and that it discourages voter participation.[134][failed verification] Although the secret ballot was sometimes practiced inancient Greece and was a part of theConstitution of the Year III of 1795, it only became common in the nineteenth century. Secret balloting appears to have been first implemented in the former Britishcolony—now anAustralianstate—ofTasmania on 7 February 1856. By the turn of the century, the practice had spread to most Western democracies.[citation needed]
In the United States, the popularity of the Australian ballot grew as reformers in the late 19th century sought to reduce the problems of election fraud. Groups such as the Greenbackers, Nationalist, and more fought for those who yearned to vote, but were exiled for their safety. George Walthew, Greenback, helped initiate one of the first secret ballots in America in Michigan in 1885. Even George Walthew had a predecessor in John Seitz, Greenback, who campaigned a bill to "preserve the purity of elections" in 1879 after the discovery of Ohio's electoral fraud in congressional elections.[citation needed]
The efforts of many helped accomplish this and led to the spread of other secret ballots all across the country. As mentioned on February 18, 1890, in the Galveston News "The Australian ballot has come to stay. It protects the independence of the voter and largely puts a stop to vote to buy." Before this, it was common for candidates to intimidate or bribe voters, as they would always know who had voted which way.[citation needed]
Most methods of preventing electoral fraud involve making the election process completely transparent to all voters, from nomination of candidates through casting of the votes and tabulation.[135][non-primary source needed] A key feature in ensuring the integrity of any part of the electoral process is a strictchain of custody.[citation needed]
To prevent fraud in central tabulation, there has to be a public list of the results from every single polling place. This is the only way for voters to prove that the results they witnessed in their election office are correctly incorporated into the totals.[citation needed]
End-to-end auditable voting systems provide voters with a receipt to allow them to verify their vote was cast correctly, and an audit mechanism to verify that the results were tabulated correctly and all votes were cast by valid voters. However, the ballot receipt does not permit voters to prove to others how they voted, since this would open the door towards forced voting and blackmail. End-to-end systems includePunchscan andScantegrity, the latter being an add-on to optical scan systems instead of a replacement.[citation needed]
In many cases,election observers are used to help prevent fraud and assure voters that the election is fair. International observers (bilateral and multilateral) may be invited to observe the elections (examples include election observation by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), European Union election observation missions, observation missions of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as international observation organised by NGOs, such asCIS-EMO, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), etc.). Some countries also invite foreign observers (i.e. bi-lateral observation, as opposed to multi-lateral observation by international observers).[citation needed]
In addition, national legislatures of countries often permit domestic observation. Domestic election observers can be either partisan (i.e. representing interests of one or a group of election contestants) or non-partisan (usually done by civil society groups). Legislations of different countries permit various forms and extents of international and domestic election observation.[citation needed]
Election observation is also prescribed by various international legal instruments. For example, paragraph 8 of the 1990 Copenhagen Document states that "The [OSCE] participating States consider that the presence of observers, both foreign and domestic, can enhance the electoral process for States in which elections are taking place. They, therefore, invite observers from any other CSCE participating States and any appropriate private institutions and organisations who may wish to do so to observe the course of their national election proceedings, to the extent permitted by law. They will also endeavour to facilitate similar access for election proceedings held below the national level. Such observers will undertake not to interfere in the electoral proceedings".[citation needed]
Critics note that observers cannot spot certain types of election fraud like targetedvoter suppression or manipulated software ofvoting machines.[citation needed]
Various forms ofstatistics can be indicators of election fraud—e.g.,exit polls which diverge from the final results. Well-conducted exit polls serve as a deterrent to electoral fraud. However, exit polls are still notoriously imprecise. For instance, in the Czech Republic, some voters are afraid or ashamed to admit that they voted for the Communist Party (exit polls in 2002 gave the Communist party 2–3 percentage points less than the actual result). Variations in willingness to participate in an exit poll may result in an unrepresentative sample compared to the overall voting population.[citation needed]
When elections are marred by ballot-box stuffing (e.g., the Armenian presidential elections of 1996 and 1998), the affected polling stations will show abnormally high voter turnouts with results favouring a single candidate. By graphing the number of votes against turnout percentage (i.e., aggregating polling stations results within a given turnout range), the divergence from bell-curve distribution gives an indication of the extent of the fraud. Stuffing votes in favour of a single candidate affects votes vs. turnout distributions for that candidate and other candidates differently; this difference could be used to quantitatively assess the number of votes stuffed. Also, these distributions sometimes exhibit spikes at round-number turnout percentage values.[136][137][138] High numbers of invalid ballots, overvoting or undervoting are other potential indicators.Risk-limiting audits are methods to assess the validity of an election result statistically without the effort of a fullelection recount.
Though electionforensics can determine if election results are anomalous, the statistical results still need to be interpreted. Alan Hicken and Walter R. Mebane describe the results of election forensic analyses as not providing "definitive proof" of fraud. Election forensics can be combined with other fraud detection and prevention strategies, such as in-person monitoring.[139]
One method for verifyingvoting machine accuracy is 'parallel testing', the process of using an independent set of results compared to the original machine results. Parallel testing can be done prior to or during an election. During an election, one form of parallel testing is thevoter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR). A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results. This method is only effective ifstatistically significant numbers of voters verify that their intended vote matches both the electronic and paper votes.[citation needed]
On election day, a statistically significant number of voting machines can be randomly selected from polling locations and used for testing. This can be used to detect potential fraud or malfunction unless manipulated software would only start to cheat after a certain event like a voter pressing a special key combination (Or a machine might cheat only if someone does not perform the combination, which requires more insider access but fewer voters).[citation needed]
Another form of testing is 'Logic & Accuracy Testing (L&A)', pre-election testing of voting machines using test votes to determine if they are functioning correctly.[citation needed]
Another method to ensure the integrity of electronic voting machines is independentsoftware verification andcertification.[135] Once a software is certified, code signing can ensure the software certified is identical to that which is used on election day. Some argue certification would be more effective if voting machine software was publicly available oropen source.[140][141]VotingWorks has created anopen-source voting system in the United States.[142]
Certification and testing processes conducted publicly and with oversight from interested parties can promote transparency in the election process. The integrity of those conducting testing can be questioned.[citation needed]
Testing and certification can prevent voting machines from being ablack box where voters cannot be sure that counting inside is done as intended.[135]
One method that people have argued would help prevent these machines from being tampered with would be for the companies that produce the machines to share the source code, which displays and captures the ballots, with computer scientists. This would allow external sources to make sure that the machines are working correctly.[77]
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Dobreva, Diyana; Grinnell, Daniel; Innes, Martin (6 May 2019)."Prophets and Loss: How 'Soft Facts' on Social Media Influenced the Brexit Campaign and Social Reactions to the Murder of Jo Cox MP".Policy & Internet.12 (2):144–164.doi:10.1002/poi3.203.Attempted impersonation was exceptionally rare, however, and measures to introduce voter identification requirements therefore had little effect on the security of the electoral process.
Existing studies, relying mainly on documented criminal prosecutions and investigations of apparent irregularities, turn up very little evidence of fraud. Critics argue that this is unsurprising because casting fraudulent votes is easy and largely undetectable without strict photo ID requirements.
Unfortunately, uncovering fraudulent elections is quite difficult. How do you prove or disprove possible wrongdoing? If votes were falsified, the wrongdoers have no motive to say so; if they were not, there's no proving a negative. Thus it is very difficult to establish a suspect election's legitimacy or illegitimacy.
Unfortunately, it remains extremely difficult to detect instances of fraud. Perpetrators of electoral fraud are highly motivated to conceal their acts from opposition parties, the press, and election monitors.
Since election fraud often cannot be observed directly, researchers and policy makers often have to rely on inferential methods to uncover unusual patterns in the official election data that might serve as plausible evidence that election results were tampered with.
Types offraud | |
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| Family-related | |
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| Healthcare | |
| Other types | |
