9.0 Introduction
“Stop the steal!” After the extremely close 2020 American Presidential election, the losing Candidate, Donald Trump, maintained that the election was stolen from him. Not to be outdone, Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro claimed to be the winning candidate after losing to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Elsewhere, elections in Romania and Canada uncovered attempts by foreign governments to interfere in their domestic elections. How can people continue to have faith in elections, given accusations of fraud, theft, and malfeasance? In this chapter, we will examine how these events have impacted trust in elections worldwide, and we will look at different strategies countries are using to preserve the integrity of elections.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
- Describe the different metrics for assessing the effectiveness of electoral institutions.
- Recall the various threats to election integrity and the respective countermeasures.
- Explain how election outcomes might shape perceptions of fairness and trust in elections.
Things we need to know
In this chapter, you can expect to encounter the following terms/concepts.
- Autocracy
- Democratization
- Voter Fraud
- Electoral Integrity
