On Oct. 20, the official Republican nominee for President of the United States made an unprecedented threat.
In a Delaware, Ohio speech, Trump proclaimed to a large crowd, "I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election—if I win."
For weeks now, Trump has been casting doubt on the credibility of our time-tested electoral system. He has questioned the objectivity of the media, the integrity of federal agencies and representatives, and the legitimacy of major party institutions. He has unearthed a massive movement of false suspicion and distrust, all grounded in lies and misrepresentations of reality. Trump’s apparent refusal to accept the incoming election results represents a grave threat to our democracy. The peaceful transition of power is the core tenet of our unique American regime, and to speak of upsetting it is a serious act of disrespect and ignorance.
But one of Trump’s major claims about the “rigged election” is less unprecedented. His argument relies on wild allegations of widespread voter fraud. Unfortunately, this tactic has been used by Republican politicians for years, particularly throughout the American South and especially in North Carolina. Trump claims, via Twitter and campaign stops, that “dead people,” “illegal immigrants,” and unregistered voters were finding means of participating in voter fraud on a mass scale, even suggesting that the establishment had a hand in allowing this supposed mass-corruption. He encouraged his supporters to participate in “poll watching,” or to monitor polling places for fraudulent behavior- basically calling on the Trump base to engage in voter intimidation. The idea that voter fraud is a colossal problem has always been false, but it’s not new. In fact, it is used across the nation to justify gerrymandering and discriminatory voter restrictions.
Significant voter fraud does not happen often. In very few cases does someone show up to the polls impersonating someone else and voting in their place. Not only do individual cases of voter fraud occur very rarely, but it would be virtually impossible to organize a movement of fraudulent voting even remotely significant enough to change an election outcome, especially in our highly institutionalized electoral system.
“I track any specific, credible allegation that someone may have pretended to be someone else at the polls, in any way that an ID Law could fix,” Loyola Law Professor Justin Levitt wrote in a guest column for The Washington Post this August. “So far, I’ve found about 31 different incidents (some of which involve multiple ballots) since 2000, anywhere in the country.”
Levitt found only 31 cases of voter fraud that could have been prevented by voter ID laws over the course of the past 16 years. That’s over one billion ballots cast across the United States, and only 31 cases of fraud in the sense that Trump and other GOP leaders are talking about. Levitt found that some fraud exists in absentee ballots, but not much more.
If voter fraud isn’t a legitimate threat to our democratic system, then why do we see so many “voter integrity” and “voter ID laws” attempting to purge polling places of their supposed corruption? The answer represents the true legitimate threat to our democratic system.
Allegations of widespread voter fraud were used to pass discriminatory voting laws in North Carolina and in states across the nation. These laws disenfranchised voters based on race and political party, and they targeted African Americans at an alarming rate. Before enacting the voter ID law, North Carolina legislators collected data on polling habits by race. Immediately after, they produced a law that reduced early voting periods, required a state-mandated photo-ID, eliminated pre-registration for high school students, eliminated same-day registration, and outlawed out-of-precinct voting. All of these measures disproportionately targeted African-Americans and young people, two groups historically supportive of Democrats.
This form of voter suppression represents the efforts of one party to maintain its own power, but also a major violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Every citizen in this country has the right to vote, and to infringe upon that right for partisan purposes is a dangerous abuse of power.
Though the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned North Carolina’s restrictive voting law in July, the sentiments and perceptions of these laws will inevitably affect the election this November. Gerrymandered districts remain, and many North Carolinians are under the false impression that the law is still in effect, including those clerking polling places. Attempts to suppress turnout based on race, age, and party affiliation are much closer to “election rigging” than anything that Trump is talking about.
In sum, let’s be clear: nobody is rigging this election. But discriminatory voting laws are an attempt to do so, so let’s not act on Trump’s false claims.
Leah Abrams is a Trinity freshman. Her column, “cut the bull,” runs on alternate Fridays.
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Leah Abrams is a Trinity senior and the Editor of the editorial section. Her column, "cut the bull," runs on alternate Fridays.