America’s future elections are under threat because of intentional efforts to undermine voters’ confidence in them.
In state after state there are candidates for office pledging to interfere with the counting of votes if they don’t like the results. Several state officials continue to deny Joe Biden was elected in 2020 and say they are willing to change electoral votes in future elections.
Allegations of rigged and stolen elections have already done considerable damage since this relatively new phenomenon in American politics began. We’ve had close elections before, but in those previous races, the losing candidates graciously conceded loss to their opponents and went on their way.
John Kennedy’s margin of victory over Richard Nixon in 1960 was a mere 0.17%. He received 50.4% of the vote to Nixon’s 49.6%. Kennedy won by 112,000 votes out of 6 million, and 303 to 219 electoral votes. Nixon’s supporters encouraged him to contest the election, especially in Texas and Illinois, but he declined, saying, “Our country cannot afford a constitutional crisis.”
That close election, however, did force the political parties to begin focusing on the Electoral College instead of the popular vote.
The Al Gore/George Bush election of 2000 was the most controversial in U.S. history. Election results coming in had been close all night, but at 2:15 a.m., news sources called Florida for Bush. Since that put Bush over the top for electoral votes, Gore telephoned him at 2:30 a.m. and conceded. Gore’s advisors objected, however, because fewer than 600 votes separated the two candidates, and they insisted Bush should not yet be declared the clear winner. At 3:30 a.m., Gore called Bush and retracted his concession.
For the next few weeks, the country experienced the uncertainty of not knowing who their next president would be. With such a small number of votes separating the two candidates, Florida election law required a full recount. This recounting continued and then there was additional recounting begun in four of the state’s most populous counties with extremely small margins.
With no conclusive outcome at hand, Bush filed suit in federal court to stop the manual recount. Florida’s canvassing board then proceeded to certify Bush the winner by 537 votes. Gore immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A month after the November election, the Court ruled the “recount of four selected counties violated the principle that all votes must be treated equally.”
This decision handed the presidency to Bush, despite the fact for the first time in history, the winner had not won the popular vote. Gore was obviously disappointed, but against the pleas of his supporters to fight on, respectfully conceded a second time. And rarely spoke about it again.
Gore’s grace in defeat was matched by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. She won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, but Trump won 304 electoral votes to 227. Although she received 48.2% of the votes to Donald Trump’s 46.1%, she accepted her defeat in the electoral college and conceded soon after the election was called. And she never once mentioned the words “rigged” or “stolen” in regard to the election. She never asked for recounts. She never went to court to protest the election. She never tried to deny certification of Trump’s electoral votes. There is evidence Russia interfered, and everyone remembers Jim Comey’s boneheaded mistakes, but Hillary accepted the outcome and even attended Trump’s inauguration.
Hillary demonstrated class. So did Gore and Nixon. They all three put the good of the country above their own self-interest. As difficult as it was to accept defeat, they all three put their elections behind them and moved on.
In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 51.3% to 46.8%. More than 81 million people chose Biden, to 74 million voting for Trump. Biden also won the electoral vote 306 to 232. Trump filed 62 cases in court to protest the election. All failed. Any isolated evidence of fraud has never justified overturning the election.
Election denial by the former president and his supporters continues. Trump never conceded, never cooperated in the transition and petulantly refused to attend Biden’s inauguration. Nearly two years since his defeat, he still won’t admit the obvious, crying “stolen election” ad nauseum.
Unfortunately, his base believes him.