果冻影院

In the 1927 Liberian presidential elections, there were 15,000 registered voters. Somehow, the winner received听243,000 votes. In the 2004 Ukrainian elections, voters in opposition areas were given pens that were听filled with disappearing ink. When officials went to count their ballots, they were blank. And in the 2013 Azerbaijan elections, the dictator accidentally听released the results听the day before the election.

There are many ways to rig an election. In the course of the past decade, I鈥檝e traveled to places as diverse as Madagascar, Belarus, Thailand, Zambia, C么te d鈥橧voire and Tunisia to study how the pros do it 鈥� and how the amateurs get caught red-handed. As an election observer, I鈥檝e spoken to poll workers who received bullets in the mail as a warning, and I鈥檝e interviewed presidents who pressured crony judges to rule in their favor during election disputes.

In other words, I know what a rigged election looks like. And here鈥檚 the reality, President Trump: This election was not rigged. Not even close.

Nonetheless, over the past few days, Trump has made increasingly unhinged claims about the election. He has conjured up images of widespread fraud 鈥� even though we know that鈥檚 a听myth. He has said that illegal votes are being counted 鈥� but is unable to produce any evidence. He has claimed that he won 鈥� when in fact it鈥檚 looking increasingly likely that he lost.

These are lies.

Don鈥檛 get me wrong, U.S. elections leave plenty to be desired. There鈥檚听voter suppression,听gerrymandering, opaque campaign finance, last-minute legal changes to electoral procedures, embarrassingly long lines that impose a 鈥渢ime tax鈥� on听minority neighborhoods听and too many barriers to registration. The patchwork of local election rules creates needless confusion for voters.

Recent elections raise other concerns. The candidate who won the most votes in presidential elections has twice lost the presidency over the past two decades. Plus, recent attempts by Trump to听slow down the Postal Service听or to tell supporters to听vote twice听seem more fitting for Azerbaijan than America. The United States is hardly a beacon for good election management.

But U.S. elections still have significant strengths. Even though the judiciary is increasingly politicized, it is still independent enough to reject frivolous challenges from losing candidates. Even though the U.S. media isn鈥檛 as trusted as it used to be, press outlets are still free to debate without censorship. And even though Trump called on his supporters to form an 鈥渁rmy鈥� to 鈥渇ight鈥� for him at the polls, the ordinary business of conducting elections still lies in the hands of competent public servants and local volunteers serving their communities.

This year, the actual process of counting has proceeded by the book. While Trump and his surrogates have claimed that the election is being stolen in the shadows, citizens have been able to听live-stream ballot counting听in many states. In others, journalists are broadcasting live from within vote-processing centers. It鈥檚 hardly the 鈥渄eep state.鈥� Instead, retirees and graduate students alike are performing a听dull but vital听public service. The Trumpian claims, like so many during the past four years, are an inversion of reality. The votes aren鈥檛 being counted in secret; it鈥檚 all happening under the world鈥檚 biggest spotlight.

The Trumpian logic doesn鈥檛 even make sense. So the Democrats are stealing an election in Georgia, a place where Republicans control just about everything? So the Democrats somehow rigged the election but decided not to win the Senate, nor to win in several battleground states where they were favored in the polls? (And they apparently managed to throw in a couple of devastating losses of key House seats for good measure.) It鈥檚 absurd.

The best way to understand Trump鈥檚 increasingly deranged authoritarian rhetoric, then, is not to fixate on the evidence. The evidence doesn鈥檛 exist, but that isn鈥檛 even the point. This isn鈥檛 about winning in court. It鈥檚 a political strategy that seeks to cast doubt on an election that Trump has lost. That strategy relies on insinuation, conspiratorial thinking and spreading the false belief that听something听is up.

One of the best illustrations of that strategy is a viral video that shows a man loading听something听into his van. It spread like wildfire on social media, with pro-Trump figures suggesting that it was a person loading up ballots to help Joe Biden. As soon as someone checked, though, the claim fell apart: It was a听cameraman for a local TV station听loading his camera into his news van. But the damage was already done.

U.S. elections have flaws. There are bound to be isolated irregularities, as there are in even the world鈥檚 best election systems. But Trump鈥檚 claims that the election is being 鈥渟tolen鈥� or 鈥渞igged鈥� are, quite simply, lies. Republicans who still believe in democracy 鈥� or who want to try to flee a sinking ship while they still can 鈥� should denounce them. Because even though they鈥檙e lies, plenty of people currently believe them 鈥� and that, in itself, is already a disastrous development for our republic.

This article was originally published in the听 on 6 November 2020.

Links

• Original article in听the
• 果冻影院 School of European Languages, Culture and Society
• 果冻影院 Faculty of Arts & Humanities