Worried About Election Integrity?

With Nov. 3 nearing, the debate over mail-in voting continues to rage. A recent article from Newsday details President Donald Trump’s claims that mail-in voting will lead to massive voter fraud and call into question to the validity of election results. That same article details the results of a series of studies – conducted by both progressive and conservative think tanks – that indicate cases of mail-in voting fraud are rare. It also casts doubt on claims that foreign actors will sway the election by printing and distributing fake ballots.

Those who follow President Trump’s twitter feed are by now very familiar with the term “rigged election”. While this year might be unique in that those claims are being made before election day is upon us, historians and scholars note that other elections were alleged to have been fixed.

Interested? Check out History.com’s story of the Eight Most Contentious Presidential Elections.  Smithsonian Magazine’s feature titled Four Times the Results of a Presidential Election were Contested notes that “rigged” might not be the best adjective to describe the Presidential elections of 1876, 1888, 1960 and 2000 but in each of those contests “there were definitely some shenanigans happening.”

The Library’s collection of print and eBooks also has an array of titles dealing with election integrity and voter fraud, including: Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation, The History and Politics of Voting Technology: In Quest of Integrity and Public Confidence, and How We Vote: Innovations in American Elections.

Additionally, Kanopy, one of the library’s streaming media databases, has curated a collection of documentary films dealing with voting rights. 

Still not registered to vote? There might still be time as some states allow in-person voter registration up to and including election day. To find out more information about the voter registration deadlines in your state, visit vote.gov.