Rigging the Presidential election in America

Shocking details about election fraud in America were reported recently. As one of the oldest democracies, America prides itself in having perfected its election process, which is free and fair. Is it really possible to cheat votes in a country which is unquestionably the global leader in information and communication technology? But this is exactly what is being debated in different circles in America and elsewhere. 

Let us begin with President-elect Donald Trump, who several months before the election came out with allegations that "large scale voter fraud" was occurring in the election and that the system was rigged. He even went on to say that he would not accept the results of the election, if he lost.These allegations were made in a well-planned manner as Trump started falling behind in opinion polls. Surprisingly, he kept declaring that he will win the ballot.

Broadly speaking two issues have come forth very prominently that raises grave questions about the integrity and reliability of the voting process. First, serious irregularities in voting have been reported in at least 23 different States. There were 600,000 allegations of vote rigging that swamped twitter, according to the UK based think-tank Demos. Second was the alleged interference of Russia through cyber-attacks to rig the election.

These irregularities have taken place at two stages – at the party primaries leading to conventions and during the election. For instance, emails released by Wikileaks showed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was biased in favour of Hillary Clinton, such as handing over questions to Clinton ahead of time and voter fraud that cost Bernie Sanders 184 votes. Similar fraudulent practices apparently also took place in favour of Donald Trump against other contenders of the Republican Party during the primaries.

Voting irregularities range from – multiple voting by an individual voter; voting on behalf of the dead; absentee ballots; voting by ineligible voters; tampering of voters registration; voter suppression; etc. The other serious phenomenon of fraud was tampering the computerised voting machines.

Professor J. Alex Halderman, of University of Michigan, described how the voting machines could have been hacked. Attackers probed election offices and spread malware into the machines rigging them to shift a few percent of votes in favour of a desired candidate. The malware were probably designed to remain inactive during pre-election tests, do the dirty work during the election, then erase itself when the polls close, leaving no trace. Edward Snowden of WikiLeaks shared a video just before the election that showed someone breaking into a voting machine using a different memory card. Halderman provided an affidavit in which he said that "cyber attacks influenced the result". 

The issue of vote fraud was further strengthened when Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, spearheaded the recount of votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Clinton campaign also supported Stein's effort. Enraged Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager of Donald Trump, dismissed the move saying, "a bunch of crybabies and sore losers..". Trump also joined in saying that there was no basis in evidence and that he had lost the popular vote to Clinton because "millions" of people voted illegally. Isn't it curious that Trump still believes that there was illegal voting?

This brings the issue of popular vote versus electoral vote, and also the issue of faithless electors to the fore. In the final count of votes Hillary Clinton got 2.8 million popular votes more than Trump. This happened because of the State election laws. If a candidate gets majority of the popular vote in a particular state, then all the designated Electoral College votes go to that candidate. Clinton won the popular votes in some of the most populated states, which swelled her popular vote numbers, but was not enough to put her across the 270 electoral votes required to clinch the Presidency. Allegations are also there that some faithless electors have switched side to vote for Trump. 

In another development, the FBI agrees with CIA that Russian cyber-attacks on American political organisations were aimed at helping Donald Trump win the Presidency and damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy. CIA assessment is based on circumstantial evidence from the leaked emails of DNC by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks could not have accessed these emails without the help of Russian intelligence. Moscow however, strongly denied any involvement and demanded proof from CIA for the allegations. If the Russian role in the election is true, it proves the inability of the Americans to protect themselves against cyber warfare. 

Donald Trump, who had shown unusual softness towards Vladimir Putin during the campaign, dismissed the CIA assessment saying, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction". Trump definitely knew about the malicious Russian intrusions. Has he not asked the Russians to dig out the lost emails of Clinton? That is probably the reason why Trump is not making any hue and cry about the result now. But now in hindsight one smells conspiracy. Indeed, this was a novel way to rig elections.

President Obama has threatened retaliation against Russia and has called for a full report on allegations of Russian interference in the election.

There are vehement denials of irregularities by a section of the media, while equally vigorous assertions with proofs have been made by others. Some have suggested that there may have been few instances of irregularities. The point is not how many cases of rigging actually happened, but that the system is fallible. 

Allegations of vote rigging are not new in America and did not change election results. There were allegations in 1876, 1884, 1916, 1960, and most recently in 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. People around the world have always looked up to America for its democratic stability and free and fair electoral process. That process seems maligned now. America has lost the moral high ground to lecture other nations on credible elections. 

The writer is former Ambassador and Secretary.