All About Election Fraud
What’s voter fraud? How much can you sell a vote for? Is your neighbor’s dog voting? Does democracy work? Can it be stopped?
What is election fraud? How is it done?
To best explain, I’m going to use two different definitions to describe election fraud. One is electoral fraud, which I’ll define as fraud done by officials, laws, or in an institutional way. The other being voter fraud, which is individuals fraudulently casting ballots, so more one-off cases. The key point in determining whether or not something constitutes election or voter fraud is if it was done to influence the election to go one way or another.
Note that these two definitions are only used to describe things in this text. Mostly everywhere else you look, media/news/whatever, just use the terms interchangeably to talk about fraud in elections, picking the terms that’ll make you more likely to tap their link.
Now, the many ways in which it is possible to commit election fraud, starting with electoral fraud:
Artificial Results:
Votes mean nothing and the government simply announces the result that they like, rarely counting votes. Little action is often taken due to fear and the impossible nature of overthrowing powerful governments.
Artificial Migration and Party Membership:
Giving land or housing to people in order to influence the way they vote. Also, includes doing the same but for immigrants in order to bring in new voters who are loyal to that government, or if members of one party join another in order to elect a weak candidate so that theirs wins.
Ballot Stuffing:
Submitting many ballots when a person is only permitted one. It is included under electoral fraud as it is often done by officials or groups.
Disenfranchisement:
Taking discriminatory measures to prevent certain groups from voting. These measures include voter registration, poll taxes, literacy or comprehension tests, record-keeping requirements, or holding voting days on sacred religious or cultural days. A less common electoral fraud in this category is to remove a person “accidentally”, disenfranchising them directly.
Misinformation:
Spreading false info about an election, candidates, times, or places of polling with the intent to change the outcome of an election.
Destruction or Invalidation of Ballots:
Simply destroying or making small changes to a ballot so that it seems as though a voter mistakenly put it in incorrectly, are tools used to change the total voters for a particular candidate.
Intimidation:
Tactics used to pressure or force voters to place their ballots a certain way, or even to avoid voting at all.
Misleading or Confusing Ballots:
Using bad or confusing design to lead voters to incorrectly vote or invalidate their votes. This is hard to get caught for because having bad design skills isn’t a crime, for some reason.
Misrecording of Votes:
Changing results with correctional applicants, like white-out, or simply pretending to have made errors with the intent to change the outcome of an election (there’s that phrase again).
Postal Ballot Fraud:
Pressure on voters from peers, collectors who change voters or fail to deliver them, as well as destruction before they are counted for purposes of influencing the election (did a little reword of the key idea there).
Tampering with Electronic Voting Systems:
Hacking, yes, the real kind, or abuse of admin privileges in order to mess with the system so that it counts votes incorrectly, lots of possible ways to do this one.
Vote Buying:
Exchange of goods, services, money, or other value in return for a ballot or vote in favour of a certain direction.
And in the other corner! … VOTER FRAUD
Dead Voters:
A living person voting under the name of a dead person (*whisper* in order to influence an election *whisper*).
Double Voting:
Voters placing two votes, usually in different places to avoid getting caught… guess what? This also has to be done with intent to influence an election.
Fraudulent Addresses:
Registering to vote with a fraudulent address (duh) in order to get around laws or to vote multiple times. This is often used to claim voter fraud, but in reality, is usually people who don’t have homes registering under shelters or workplaces.
Misuse of Proxy Votes:
When people can’t go in to vote they’ll trust a person to vote for them, and if this person votes differently from how the unable person wanted to, it’s voter fraud (if intended, naturally).
Registration Fraud:
Falsely registering to bypass laws and vote illegally, or more than once, same thing though.
Voter Fraud by Pets:
Signing a pet up as a registered voter. Please feel free to drop me a line if you find someone’s alligator (or crocodile) signed up to vote, thanks in advance.
Voter Impersonation:
Pretending to be someone you aren’t in order to take their vote from them.
Voters with Felony Conviction:
Some places don’t allow people with felonies to vote. And if one of those disenfranchised individuals voted it would be voter fraud (You already know what it has to be).
Votes by Noncitizens:
Voting without legally being a citizen of that area… I’m not even writing it out this time.
Now for some examples and disexamples (yeah, I invented that word) of election fraud.
The 2000 US Presidential election: Florida’s ballot paper was considered by some to have been badly designed in order to influence voters. EU Parliamentary ballots in 2009 has a confusing system if one was voting for a smaller party. And in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats and Swedish Democratic Party have similar fonts used on ballots which has confused voters and could be debated as a form of fraud.
Ballot stuffing has been detected in an Australian district election in 1883, MLB All-Star Games (however those work), a Sequoia voting machine in 2006, and in the 2018 Russian Presidential Election favouring Putin. The video of the Russian incident has recently been falsely said to be in the US and used as evidence to attempt to prove that the recent US Presidential election was fraudulent.
A Malawi election in 2018 had it’s results nulled due to the changing of votes by officials. 2014–1017 in the US a person was able to expose election files from Georgia which could be used for fraud. Russian attackers accessed internal computer systems of VR Systems, an election computer provider, in 2017. Ukraine’s central election system suffered from a virus in 2014. In 1994 South African computer system were hacked.
Fortunately, all the examples I gave have been found and since been fixed, making them all disexamples, except for the Russian ballot stuffing incident.
Moving on, many independent studies have shown that people who no longer are alive or reside in the US have been on voter rolls. However, there is little evidence of these people voting or being used to vote, there is the odd case where it does happen though. Just keep in mind that in most cases the very reason I’m able to do research on these cases is that someone found out and the case was resolved.
Also, the Myanmar coup wasn’t an example of fraud. The military claimed there had been double voting, which is false but easy to claim due to similarities in names and things. What it is an example of is the use of the words “election fraud” in order to gain or keep control of power.
Again, forward, the claims of widespread election fraud and no fraud are both false, but it does fall to the lesser side of election fraud in the US. Many reports find that there are credible cases of fraud, however the highest rate of voter fraud in the US is measured at 0.02% of total votes being cast being fraudulent.
This doesn’t mean that voter fraud is inconsequential, and a perfectly clean election is necessary for democratic systems to work as labeled and should be worked towards. Especially when small margins often determine elections, so those numbers should be pushed down further.
Note that voter impersonation is extremely rare, less likely than being struck by lightning according to a study by MIT, simply because it’s really hard to get away with or even do, the gains are minimal, and the costs are immense. The same goes for pretty much all acts of voter fraud that aren’t institutional.
To generalize; all claims of voter fraud have been plainly false, acts of confusion, accidents by voters and staff, or the number of persons is grossly exaggerated. If you want to read more into this, check out the Brennan Center study titled “The Truth About Voter Fraud”.
As well, people in well developed nations tend to engage in and be less susceptible to voter and electoral fraud. However, people with less resources in less-developed areas are much more likely to, for example, have their votes bought, such as Mexico 2006, Venezuela 2018, Kenya since the 1990s, 15% of Latin Americans according to 2010 and 2012 surveys, and 60% of Indonesians according to a 2020 survey.
It sounds like the US is relatively well-off on this whole fraud thin, eh? And yep, it definitely isn’t as bad as in some other places, however there is a whole other issue at play. That of political campaigns using consumer data to target voters in order to sway their opinions.
Data particularly form social media is being pulled by AI to build models of users to predict personalities, what they think and do, so they can play with people’s heads to influence their actions in elections. So, this is a form of fraud, as the influenced have little control over their subsequent decision and actions, making this a deadly and harmful tool of manipulation.
Also, the use of big-data in elections is only increasing and isn’t a US-only issue, the same exact strategies and even the same company, Cambridge Analytica, was hired to work on the BREXIT campaign.
How Prevalent is it?
As shown before, it depends on the target and the practices put in place to stop it. This is why in more developed countries with fewer extremely poor, a generally higher quality of life, and better policies against it, election fraud is exceedingly rare. Globally it is still a problem that plagues money regions.
But across the glove AI and data are being used to create campaigns that prey on people. When a platform can show you only what you want to see you lose control over what conclusions you’ll come to. And this data is often disguised an “analytics” or simple surveys. However, there is a reason why a certain amount of campaigning costs are as large as they are, they’re buying data.
This is a problem that must be addressed in order to protect the self-determination of nations and the people who make up them. And that in turn can be done by disallowing the harvesting of personal data and its use for any purposes other than simply research.
It is already clear to many that fraud didn’t decide the US election. But some do hold with the claims of otherwise. So, to give an honest and simple answer… no. Fraud did not decide the election. The evidence is false, and the number of people exaggerated.
Another vital sidenote I would like to point out is that the authenticity of certain publications like Breitbart should be questioned as their whole philosophy is that one must break society before it can work, which is a little worrying for a “news” source to be based upon.
As well, the article from Breitbart has misrepresented laws and tried to make recounts seem like evidence of election fraud, when in reality there were uncounted votes and giving the counters more time will invariably lead to more votes being counted. Finally, before I move on, Joe Biden did not admit to electoral fraud as has been suggested, but simply made a gaffe. And people making claims of many people voting twice or of dead voters voting almost all end up being simply people having similar names or voting before they died.
There were individuals who committed voter fraud, but it wasn’t widespread and was just a few individuals who decided to take it into their own hands on either side of the issue. Though no electoral fraud took place, there are many misrepresented and out of context claims of it.
The situation in Myanmar is similar to that in the US, though on wildly different scales, because the junta has used claims of double voting to justify an illegal takeover of political power. And in the US, those same claims have been used to attempt to retain political power.
However, along with consumer data, a recurring theme is the use of social media to influence elections, and this 100% took place. I have no explicit evidence of data being used to zero in on targets, as it was in previous elections and BREXIT. But the use of social media and news outlets, to some degree on both sides was used to sow distrust and hate for supporters of each side.
Politics shouldn’t be about hate, but about making the right choices to have a positive change in government.
Can it be stopped?
It is definitely a difficult task to create fair elections in which fraud plays no part, but with some variation on a few ideas I believe it is possible to get damn close to perfection. Overall, there need to be decentralized NGO election management bodies (EMBs) that are non-partisan because centralization breeds bureaucratic hurdles, costing more time and money. And being closer to the government increases the likelihood of them being subject to fraud.
Here are some actual ideas about how this can be done:
- it should be the EMBs responsibility to prevent fraud and inform voters about where and how to vote, partisan groups shouldn’t be allowed to put out info about this. This aids in preventing misinformation.
- EMBs need to be able and willing to speak publicly about cases of possible fraud, but also must later state whether or not they found anything. Of course, the EMB must still be bound by the law and unable to convict, only provide evidence.
- those involved must have adequate training, and the processes must be made publicly clear so that everyone can understand why certain issues are treated in certain ways. So that needless distrust isn’t built up.
- needs to be a definite way for EMBs to deal with cases of fraud within their ranks so that elections can go through and the org can reaffirm its non-partisan and fraud-free nature. Avoid stalling out elections and companies being afraid of getting into the sector.
- election advisors and outside security help should be employed by the EMB in order to have a much more complete solution. but these outside assistants must be made legally obligated and have their presence known. This makes it easier to pinpoint possible perpetrators of fraud.
- EMBs should be funded as government entities and donations mustn’t be allowed. but there must be adequate funding for the EmB that is decided based on outside studies with recommendations from the EMB and outside NGOs. A broke org isn’t usually a useful one, and donations could create partisan feelings.
- government parties must conduct anti-fraud actions upon their own party, in addition to those of EMBs, in order to maintain they’re a legitimate and legal party. Preventative action is always better than remedial.
- mail-in ballots shouldn’t be removed, a better solution is to have third parties involved in the control of voter fraud. There are legitimate reasons to push for mail-in ballots (such as allowing more to vote), but the necessary precautions must be taken. The opposite worsens the voting situation as those who cannot go in to vote (deployed soldiers, elderly, etc.) won’t get to vote.
- As of right now there is a lack of resources to inform people about fraud and how it should best be combatted. Instead of just putting out stats of how frequently fraud happens, news and research parties should also inform about how fraud is and should be dealt with. those who are uninformed will come to incorrect resolution.
Is voting worth it anymore?
With how split the world is becoming and the rise of those who simply wish to polarize for the advancement of their own ideals, the people who they serve must be informed about what’s happening and question their own assumptions to find the best solution for society as a whole.
There are ways to fix these problems, including election fraud, but the right processes, systems, and people must be put in place. And the voting system in many places is pretty secure, but we must push more improvements in those places, and those where it is more corrupt.
To conclude, we as human beings must be educated on voter and electoral fraud, take responsible action to promote safe, legitimate elections for everyone and vote for people and ideas that improve society for all of us here on Earth.
