Last Friday, I wrote that election fraud isn’t all that easy to pull off even in a polity dominated by a single party. Even in Russia. Now think about a fiercely competitive environment such as a swing state, like Georgia, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, where both parties are watching over each other’s shoulder.
There’s also the simple fact that most people don’t like cheating and have enough dignity and self-respect to play fair unless under serious duress or temptation. Here’s a Twitter thread by James Young, a former Elections Director in Louisville, Kentucky, and a registered Republican. I think he’s done a great job explaining that elections officials are real people with a strong work ethic and a commitment to improving the voting and counting process and making them as error-free as possible.
Trump always talks about election fraud. He complained a lot about getting cheated out of his upcoming victory in 2016 – until he won and stopped complaining. Secretary Clinton conceded almost at once. Recounts followed but she didn’t wait for them to be completed to concede and she didn’t complain about Trump’s margins being thin.
Frankly, I didn’t have much sympathy for her then so I was somewhat surprised at her swift concession. All the talk about Russians manipulating voting machines (even if not connected to the Internet) was not to be taken seriously. Grownups still ruled… until the great experiment began.