Election subversion can involve a range of measures to change the outcome of a vote, including voter suppression, election denial,

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

, intimidation and other legal or illegal attempts to not count or disqualify certain votes.

United States

Richard L. Hasen outlines three main avenues for election subversion in the United States: 1) disqualify votes where a partisan body justifies changing the outcome, (2) fraudulent or suppressive election administration, and (3) actors disrupting the voting, the counting of votes, or the assumption of power by true winner. Many efforts at election subversion (as well as

voter suppression Voter suppression is the discouragement or prevention of specific groups of people from voting or registering to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the o ...

) promoting false claims of

election fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

before, during and after attempted election subversion, with the belief in widespread election fraud raising the risk of an election being subverted.

Avenues for election subversion

Disqualification of votes

Rules that make voting more difficult for some, for example, can become a

pretext A pretext (: ''pretextual'') is an excuse to do something or say something that is not accurate. Pretexts may be based on a half-truth or developed in the context of a misleading fabrication. Pretexts have been used to conceal the true purpose or r ...

for disqualifying votes, regardless of whether or not it justifies such a radical action. Activists aligned with Trump have been aggressive in trying to ensure that the voters eligible to vote are more likely to support their candidate in 2024. The

independent state legislature theory The independent state legislature theory or independent state legislature doctrine (ISL) is a judicially rejected legal theory that posits that the Constitution of the United States delegates authority to regulate Federal elections in the United ...

in the U.S. suggests allowing state legislatures to unilaterally disqualify votes and send their own electors regardless of the vote outcome. The use of the theory was rejected in Moore v. Harper by the US Supreme Court in 2023. Even without the theory, the concern still exists that a Republican state legislature might cite uncertainty as a pretext to throw out legal votes and decide the outcome of an election for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

in 2024.

Election insecurity

The lack of election security best-practices creates opportunities for compromised election systems/ballots by third-parties which can also foster mistrust of the results even without evidence of tampering.

Intimidation and/or replacement of election officials

By major candidates calling into question the integrity of elections, the ensuing

threats A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation fo ...

towards

election official An election official, election officer, election judge, election clerk or poll worker is an official responsible for the proper and orderly voting at polling stations. Depending on the country or jurisdiction, election officials may be identified ...

s have led to hundreds of resignations in the U.S. for example, leading to concerns of understaffing and some vacancies being filled by hyper-partisans interested in election subversion. Detroit experienced significant initimidation by Trump-supporters during the counting of ballots in 2020, including banging on the glass and shouting at the workers counting ballots.

Question/deny legitimacy of election

This tactic to deny unfavorable results weakens the power of the winners through decreasing the number of citizens who find them legitimate, potentially leading to a breakdown in the rule of law as was seen on January 6, 2021 in the United States. These claims can also be used to try to justify the manipulation of election results in the courts or other bodies of power such as legislatures.

References

External links

{{Corruption Political corruption Voter suppression Electoral fraud Injustice Political campaign techniques