{"id":2703,"date":"2024-10-02T19:33:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T19:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2024-10-03T04:53:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T04:53:14","slug":"more-polarization-more-election-distrust-avoid-temptations-to-call-lost-elections-rigged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/10\/02\/more-polarization-more-election-distrust-avoid-temptations-to-call-lost-elections-rigged\/","title":{"rendered":"More Polarization, More Election Distrust: Why We Must Avoid Temptations to Call Lost Elections \u201cRigged\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tompepinsky.com\/2020\/10\/28\/americans-are-already-set-to-conclude-that-the-2020-presidential-elections-were-rigged\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that many Americans \u2014 including many Republicans and Democrats \u2014 were prepared to view the election as \u201crigged\u201d if their candidate lost. One of the survey creators said the results were \u201cin a word, extreme.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stability of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/act.represent.us\/sign\/democracy-republic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">democratic republic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like America depends on widespread trust in and acceptance of election results. Without this, things start to fall apart. Political dysfunction can give way to chaos, constitutional crises, and even significant political violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>We must see that when we call elections \u201cillegitimate\u201d without very strong reasons, we hurt America.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b>Addressing common objections<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point, you might have an objection like, \u201cThis is only a problem on the \u2018other side\u2019; you\u2019re making a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/09\/10\/liberal-unsubscribes-criticizing-us-for-bothsides-ism\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">false equivalency<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d or maybe, \u201cMy reasons for distrusting elections make more sense than theirs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We aim to encourage <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everyone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, regardless of their political views and their concerns about the \u201cother side,\u201d to reflect on how these tendencies might apply to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Put another way: Whether you\u2019re more upset about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2022-election\/republicans-denied-questioned-2020-election-on-ballot-rcna55824\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump saying the 2020 election was stolen<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/top-dems-tweet-calling-2016-election-illegitimate-resurfaces-amid-opposition-gop-speaker-nominee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democrats calling Trump&#8217;s 2016 win illegitimate<\/span><\/a>\u00a0due to Russian interference<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we hope you\u2019ll consider these ideas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Hostility and fear can lead to election distrust<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we dislike and fear the \u201cother side,\u201d it&#8217;s easy to believe they&#8217;re up to something dishonest, including election-related tricks, even when we don\u2019t have good evidence for that.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among people who said they believed the 2020 election was stolen, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11109-023-09875-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that about half of them <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">weren\u2019t fully convinced of that<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This helps us see how negative emotions can lead to expressions of election distrust even in the absence of certainty. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/32905\/chapter-abstract\/276662696\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">winner-loser gap<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to the tendency for a group that has lost a political contest to have many people who see the results as illegitimate. The worse a country\u2019s divides grow, the more this becomes a problem. There has been significant election distrust in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/20531680231206987\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">several recent presidential elections<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yalebooks.yale.edu\/9780300248197\/election-meltdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Election Meltdown<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Richard Hasen examines instances of Donald Trump making <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.uci.edu\/podcast\/episode20.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">false and misleading statements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> promoting the idea the 2020 election was stolen. Hasen also examines examples on the left; for example, Hillary Clinton blaming her 2016 loss in Wisconsin on Republicans passing voter ID legislation, despite <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/factchecks\/2017\/jun\/09\/hillary-clinton\/hillary-clintons-mostly-false-claim-photo-id-voter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a lack of clear evidence to support that claim<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Concerns about media influence<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people may have election distrust due to believing bad or biased actors have influenced votes. For example, some Republicans count <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dc.hillsdale.edu\/News-and-Events\/News\/Mollie-Hemingway-Outlines-Rigged%E2%80%9D-2020-Election-at\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biased liberal-leaning media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among reasons for seeing the 2020 election as illegitimate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leading up to the 2016 election, there were many fake pro-Trump news sites, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/craigsilverman\/revealed-notorious-pro-trump-misinformation-site-true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">domestic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2017\/02\/veles-macedonia-fake-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">foreign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which many saw as unfairly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/04\/11\/601323233\/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shifting the election<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Republicans presumably would dislike it if Democrats used such instances as reasons to call an election illegitimate. The truth is it will always be possible for people to perceive wrong and biased media shifting people\u2019s views, making this a weak reason to call an election \u201crigged.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, America has always had news media viewed by many as unfairly biased. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/age-old-problem-fake-news-180968945\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smithsonian Magazine article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> explored the \u201cage old problem of fake news\u201d and how there\u2019ve been charges of news unfairly influencing political outcomes as long as there\u2019s been a free press. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Russia and other foreign influence<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people saw Trump\u2019s 2016 win as illegitimate due to thinking <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/10\/01\/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russia influenced the election<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 but there\u2019s no strong evidence Russia succeeded at that. Various <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/13\/upshot\/fake-news-and-bots-may-be-worrisome-but-their-political-power-is-overblown.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">analysts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have made the case that Russia\u2019s efforts were minor compared to other political activity. Also, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-022-35576-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2023 study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found no evidence that exposure to the Russian campaign had led to \u201cchanges in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Foreign powers who meddle in our elections are trying to foster discord and chaos. In fact, considering the difficulty of shifting an election, creating discord is likely their main goal. <\/span><b><i>We should avoid playing into our enemies\u2019 hands by too readily calling elections illegitimate.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b>Election mistakes, issues, and fraud\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America is a big country with a distributed and complex system for elections. In any given election, there\u2019ll be various <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/lightning-rod-broward-county-florida-elections-head-brenda-snipes-stepping-down-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mistakes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/4599886\/detroit-voting-machine-failures-were-widespread-on-election-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">technical issues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/states\/florida\/story\/2018\/11\/12\/bay-county-allowed-voters-to-cast-ballots-online-despite-law-gov-scotts-orders-692157\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biased decisions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 and even some <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawyerscommittee.org\/north-carolina-voter-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">genuine fraud<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><b>This means it\u2019s easy for people to seize on irregularities as reasons to distrust the outcomes of an election<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rigged<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Mollie Hemingway argues the 2020 election was stolen. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/book-review-rigged-and-our-broken-elections-11637019090\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wall Street Journal review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> criticized her for conflating minor and expected election issues and mistakes with purposeful fraud. (The reviewer also notes that some of the issues mentioned in her book may have even helped Trump.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Election Meltdown<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Hasen writes that in close elections, \u201cattention immediately focuses on the weakest link in the system.\u201d We can be drawn to overstating the significance of small and inevitable issues with large, complex elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Changes to election policy<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One reason some Democrats have viewed elections as illegitimate is because they think Republicans have suppressed votes in undemocratic ways. One prominent example of this was the 2018 Georgia Governor\u2019s race where Democrats saw <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/411346-stacey-abrams-voter-id-law-meant-to-scare-people-out-of-voting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Republicans making it harder to vote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as causing a Democratic loss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2018\/11\/georgia-stacey-abrams-brian-kemp-election-not-stolen.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why Democrats Should Not Call the Georgia Governor\u2019s Race \u2018Stolen\u2019<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d Richard Hasen argued that a political group that loses an election should accept the results even when they think an election was not conducted perfectly, and that distinguishing between legal actions from illegal activity (like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawyerscommittee.org\/north-carolina-voter-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fraud<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) is important.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In America, there\u2019s a tension between the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2018\/07\/17\/most-americans-want-make-it-easier-not-harder-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">demand for easy voting<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/403052\/eight-americans-favor-early-voting-photo-laws.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">concerns about election integrity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We can see how this tension makes it easy for changes to election policy to produce distrust and suspicion. But even if we have distrust, calling an election \u201cillegitimate\u201d without strong reasons raises the partisan temperature and harms the democratic institutions that make America tick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Working against pessimistic instincts<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you believe a recent election was illegitimate, we almost certainly didn\u2019t address all your concerns in this short piece. We only hope we helped you see why it\u2019s hugely important to question and examine such beliefs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If our divides continue to grow, it will become more common for people to view major elections as stolen. If we care about this country, <\/span><b><i>we must work against overly pessimistic views \u2014 both in ourselves and among our political peers.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to learn more about election distrust? We recommend the book <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/yalebooks.yale.edu\/book\/9780300248197\/election-meltdown\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Election Meltdown<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which discusses the rarity of election fraud in America and the importance of improving election systems.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Please join us in working against toxic polarization: <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/join\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign up for our newsletter<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, a survey found that many Americans \u2014 including many Republicans and Democrats \u2014 were prepared to view the election as \u201crigged\u201d if their candidate lost. One of the survey creators said the results were \u201cin a word, extreme.\u201d The stability of a democratic republic like America depends on widespread&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[],"type_feed":[77],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>More Polarization, More Election Distrust: Why We Must Avoid Temptations to Call Lost Elections \u201cRigged\u201d - Builders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/10\/02\/more-polarization-more-election-distrust-avoid-temptations-to-call-lost-elections-rigged\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Polarization, More Election Distrust: Why We Must Avoid Temptations to Call Lost Elections \u201cRigged\u201d - Builders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, a survey found that many Americans \u2014 including many Republicans and Democrats \u2014 were prepared to view the election as \u201crigged\u201d if their candidate lost. 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