Perhaps the most disturbing new trend in US electoral politics has been the increase in high-profile candidates and officials claiming that our elections are rife with fraud. This concern may seem misplaced given the disturbing allegations of absentee ballot fraud this fall in North Carolina and what the Justice Department’s special counsel investigation is uncovering about the 2016 election. However, the former is rare and the latter unprecedented. Moreover, these investigations demonstrate that suspicious and possibly criminal activities do not go undetected and uninvestigated.
On the other hand, as numerous inquiries have found, attempts to illegally influence elections through the ballot box are less frequent than even the phrase “extremely rare” suggests. But persistent unfounded claims of such fraud have the potential to weaken confidence in democracy, a far more insidious problem than fraud by voters and officials.
Results from a new Grinnell College National Poll give insights into which citizens lack confidence in the November 2018 election. CONT.
Douglas Hess (Grinnell), LSE USAPP