Rigged elections and voter fraud are nothing new in the United States political system, but we’re hearing much more about it now because of Social Media and increased media coverage. The goal of committing voter fraud is to sway election results in favor of the desired candidate or party, but how does voter fraud work? If the answer to this question were simple, voter fraud would be easy to prevent – but there are many different types of voter fraud, and the methods are often intentionally confusing.

How voter fraud works depends on the goal of the group committing the act. In primary elections, voter fraud is more likely to occur in an effort to have one candidate get more votes than others within their political party. In presidential elections, voter fraud is more likely to occur in an effort to have one party win over the other. There are two main ways that groups can try to falsely influence elections, which is by either increasing or decreasing the number of voters for a chosen candidate.

There have been documented instances of people who were already dead voting in elections. In these cases, the goal was obviously to raise the number of tallied ballots for a particular candidate. This method of voter fraud has become outdate with the improvements in technology, although there are still ways to boost ballots in some cases. The second type of Voter Fraud is becoming more prevalent in modern elections…

Political groups have figured out that they will be caught committing voter fraud using the old method of padding total votes, so they have taken a different approach to illegally rigging elections. Voter suppression is when one group takes steps to lower voter turnout or total votes using unfair methods. This term, voter suppression, has been used several times in the current election, yet many still don’t know exactly how this is happening.

In the case of Maricopa County in Arizona, voter suppression occurred in two forms, potentially swaying the outcome of the primary election. Registered democrats were told that their status had been misfiled, and in some cases were told that they were not allowed to vote. Others were instructed to vote using provisional ballots, but the state wouldn’t release the number that they had provided.

Arizona’s largest county also failed to provide enough polling locations for the population and projected voter figures. Some voters waited in line for up to 5 hours to cast their ballot – many of which came after Hillary Clinton had been declared the Democratic winner in the state. Many feel that Bernie Sanders was the victim of Voter Suppression Fraud in the Arizona Primaries.

Voter fraud is a result of our antiquated election system in the United States. Citizens are told to trust having their banking records, tax statements and healthcare information stored and managed online – but the government won’t allow us to vote online? Don’t stand in line for 5 hours – or even 5 minutes! Take part and Vote for President in the largest poll online now!