The election of 2020 started on Nov. 3 with millions of Americans casting their ballots for who they thought should be their next president. From in-person voting to absentee ballots, everyone who wanted to found a way to vote. But was your vote counted? 

Since the results of the election, President Trump and his administration have not accepted the results. They claim several cases of voter fraud across several swing states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, etc. 

But what is voter fraud and how can it happen?

First off, voter fraud is when there is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both. There are many categories and ways of committing voter fraud: 

• Disposing votes
  • Mail being thrown out by someone
• Counting one vote as twice or more 
  • A ballot being counted more than once by the poll operators
• Dead people voting 
  • Peoples names that are deceased used for voting
• Votes being carried to other states and being counted 
  • Mail being transported from one state to another 
• Intimidation 
  • Threatening someone to vote for someone else 

There are two perspectives to this situation currently. Democrats explain that Trump is only saying that because he can’t accept the election results. While many Republicans say that there is clear evidence leading to voter fraud for Biden in several swing states. 

Well, what’s the evidence for voter fraud so far, and is it even factual? 

Many cases have been an issue in states where citizens would find votes in a ditch. A statement from the Outagamie County Sheriff’s office said that on Sept. 21, shortly before 8:00 a.m., the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a hazard on STH 96 at CTH CB in the Town of Greenville. Three trays of U.S. mail were found on the side of the road and in the ditch line. The mail was supposed to be in transit to the post office. The content of the mail was mixed but did contain several absentee ballots. The mail was turned over to the Postal Inspector.

According to the Trump Administration, there have been multiple cases of voter ballot workers saying that while they were working that saw that votes were being counted twice and that trucks came in with stacks of votes for Biden. There is no evidence to confirm if this is true except for anecdotal evidence reported from several poll workers.  Trump’s Attorney Rudy Giuliani said, “I know crimes, I can smell them. You don’t have to smell this one, I can prove it to you, 18 different ways. I can prove to you that he won Pennsylvania, by 300,000 votes. I can prove to you that he won Michigan, probably 50,000 votes.” 

So what are the chances that this election was rigged and why does it affect me at Radford?

The chances that the election was rigged is slightly likely. Although there is a chance that this is just the President not accepting the results there is slight evidence in certain areas that there was voter fraud. Not only that but in areas like Pennsylvania, there has been confirmed evidence of voter fraud in previous elections like how on May 21, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Domenick Demuro was convicted for his role in accepting bribes to cast fraudulent ballots and certifying false voting results during 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections in Philadelphia.

Why should I care? The future president of America should not be elected through faulty votes but by the system our founding fathers made it. The president decides the route of America and it changes the balance of the world. Nobody wants someone to be voted in unfairly and four years of presidency can change the future of America forever.