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In sure circles, the 2020 presidential election isn’t over – and that appears to be at the least a bit of bit true. In latest weeks, official evaluations of election information and processes from the 2020 presidential election have reported findings that is perhaps used to unfold rumors about voting integrity.
As an illustration, election officers in Virginia’s Prince William County announced on Jan. 11, 2024, that 4,000 votes from the 2020 presidential election had been miscounted. None of them modified the outcomes. These miscounts gave Donald Trump 2,327 extra votes than he really acquired, and Joe Biden 1,648 votes fewer. Errors in counting turned up in different races, too, with each events’ candidates for U.S. Senate being given fewer votes than they really obtained, and a Republican who gained a seat within the U.S. Home of Representatives really gained by a barely bigger margin than beforehand reported.
An audit of South Carolina’s 2020 voting information released in mid-January found no fraud and no indication any election outcomes may have been completely different with the errors that had been recognized. However the report did advocate election officers cross-check lists of registered voters with different state lists extra regularly than they’ve achieved up to now. Loss of life experiences and jail inmate rolls may also help them decide who ought to stay eligible to voter and who must be faraway from voting lists, the report mentioned.
The Dialog U.S. has revealed a number of articles in regards to the techniques defending election integrity. Listed below are 4 examples from our archives.
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1. Altering numbers are proof of transparency, not fraud
The information experiences of election audits got here, initially, from election officers themselves, who specified they had been under the small margins that may have triggered recounts. The experiences additionally supplied explanations for what had occurred and easy methods to repair it sooner or later – and included statements that at the least among the issues had already been fastened for upcoming elections.
That’s an instance of what Kristin Kanthak, a political scientist on the College of Pittsburgh, was speaking about when she defined that election outcomes that change over time aren’t inherently an issue:
“(T)his doesn’t mean the system is ‘rigged.’ Really, it means the system is clear to a fault,” she wrote.
2. Simpler voting isn’t a menace to election integrity
Erecting obstacles to voting is not going to stop the issues that do exist within the election system, for the easy cause that the failings usually are not a results of simpler voting strategies, comparable to early voting and voting by mail.
Grinnell School political scientist Douglas R. Hess noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic was an enormous take a look at of whether or not a safe election may very well be held with numerous accommodations that made voting easier, and safer from the unfold of illness.
As he wrote,
“(E)arly voting and voting by mail are focused for restrictions in lots of states, regardless that each reforms are widespread with the general public, labored securely in 2020 and have been expanded in lots of states for years with out will increase in fraud. Likewise, the gathering of absentee ballots – a necessity for some voters – may be carried out securely.”
Learn extra:
Making it easier to vote does not threaten election integrity
3. It’s potential for election staff to be each partisan and fair-minded
For a few years, elections have been run by individuals who had been members of 1 political occasion or the opposite however behaved in good religion to run truthful elections, wrote Thom Reilly, a scholar at Arizona State College’s College of Public Affairs.
However each the info and the rhetoric have modified, he defined, noting {that a} important share of the voters isn’t a member of both occasion – so the individuals who supervise elections, who’re usually occasion members, are “an increasingly partisan set of officials.”
Even so, lots of them work laborious to conduct truthful elections. But, he wrote,
“(W)idespread misinformation and disinformation on election administration is hobbling the flexibility of election officers to do their job and has created fertile floor for distrust.”
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4. Beware those that purpose to confuse or mislead
Political disinformation efforts are notably intense round elections, warn students of data warfare Kate Starbird and
Jevin West on the College of Washington and Renee DiResta at Stanford College.
Conditions to be careful for are these during which “lack of understanding and certainty can gasoline doubt, fan misinformation and supply alternatives for these looking for to delegitimize the outcomes,” they wrote.
Particularly, look out for:
“Politically motivated individuals (who) are more likely to cherry-pick and assemble these items of digital “proof” to suit narratives that search to undermine belief within the outcomes. A lot of this proof is more likely to be derived from actual occasions, although taken out of context and exaggerated.“
They supply a reminder to maintain your wits about you and make sure to double-check any claims earlier than believing or sharing them.
Learn extra:
5 types of misinformation to watch out for while ballots are being counted – and after
This story is a roundup of articles from The Dialog’s archives.
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