Donald Trump, or Any Candidate, Should Challenge Election Results if Evidence of Fraud is Suspected.

Challenging Fraud Can Strengthen Democracy and Build Confidence in the System.

Fraud Left Unchecked, Leads to Further Instances of Fraud That Can Undermine Confidence.

A Challenge of Election Results is not the Same as a Challenge to a Law.

The False Premise of Loser Concession for the Benefit of the Country

Chris Wallace, Moderator of the third presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump October 19, 2016: “there is a tradition in this country, in fact one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power.. that at the end of the campaign the loser concedes to the winner… and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country.”

It’s what Richard Nixon did in 1960, even though he believed the election was ‘stolen’ from him.

We heard similar “come together” line of reasoning when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon after he resigned.

The ‘good of the country’ rationale seems to be in part the reason that the FBI did not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton.

It is also the rational for not prosecuting “too big to fail” banks.

What is Election Fraud and Why it Should Be Challenged

• Voter suppression (poll tax, literacy test)/intimidation;
• Miscounting ballots;
• Voting many times/stuffing ballot box;
• Computer hacking or malfunction domestic or foreign; and
• Media bias/collusion

Take off the Partisan Hat

Forget who the candidate might be that alleges election fraud. As we review this issue think of a victim of election fraud as if it were any candidate whether woman, man, gay, black, catholic, jewish, hispanic or any other candidate. Take the election fraud issue away from partisan scrutiny and you probably conclude that it’s the fraud that undermines democracy, not the challenge to the fraud.

Arguments Against Challenging Election Fraud

1. The election fraud challenge during and after election harms democracy and destroys confidence.

This argument is ludicrous on its face. Election fraud is a crime. Failing to report it or combat it, is to condone fraud and will lead to further instances of fraud. Complaining about fraud does not destroy the confidence in the fairness of the system and the ‘democratic process’, if that confidence is improperly grounded due to fraud in the system and the fairness of the democratic system is an illusion.

The rational to not challenge fraud and to scorn the candidate who does so is like telling robbery, rape or burglary victims not to report those crimes because it is tradition not to because we don’t want to undermine the perception that our community is safe.

The community is made more unsafe if the crimes are not reported and addressed. Similarly, allowing election fraud to go unchecked for the good of the country, invites further election fraud, which ultimately undermines confidence.

Election fraud seems to be the only crime that some are ready to say -‘if you got away with the fraud, the statute if limitations ends right after the votes are counted’. There is no remedy once the votes are counted in order to preserve the illusion of stability and fairness of the democratic system!

Imagine if criminals could commit the crimes of robbery or murder and be exonerated as soon as they had completed their crimes!

The argument that the time to have complained about the fraud was before the election was over, is like telling a burglary victim, the time to have called the police to stop the burglary was before it happened. Now that it has happened – tough luck!

2. Election fraud has never been proven to have an impact on a Presidential election.

While this may be true, it is true because it hasn’t been investigated. A town whose residents don’t report crimes, can be said to have no crime. That doesn’t mean the town has experienced no crime. Unless there is an investigation into election fraud it is impossible to tell if it had an impact.

Don’t Worry About it!

Attempted murder, rape, burglary are still crimes even if they do not result in actual murder, rape or burglary. If the intent of election fraud is to change the result of an election, it is still a crime, even if the election result is not changed.

Failing to prosecute attempted crimes, can only lead to condoning attempted crimes and ultimately leading to the successful commissions of crimes, including election fraud that may one day change the outcome of a Presidential election.

Does one fell safer knowing that attempted crimes have been committed in one’s community but have not been reported or prosecuted?

Is it comforting to tell an attempted rape victim, stop complaining, you weren’t raped, are you trying to undermine the illusion that our community is safe?

Is one’s confidence in elections strengthened knowing that there is election fraud but it didn’t impact the outcome?

3. It’s far fetched to think an election can be rigged

Many crimes are indeed hard to pull off. The difficulty of the completion of a crime is not
a valid defense of a crime. A burglar cannot successfully proffer the defense that he did not attempt to steal goods from a highly guarded store because it was too hard. If the stakes are high enough, criminals will exert greater effort and resources to attempt to complete their crimes.

4. Candidates complaining about election fraud are sore losers.

This is a blame the victim argument. If a candidate and his/her supporters have suffered from election fraud, the crime deserves to be investigated and prosecuted, even if the outcome of the election was not ultimately impacted.

Election fraud is not part of the electoral process that needs to be accepted win, lose or draw.

Conclusion

Election results are neither laws nor moral imperatives that need to be followed and respected if they are suspected of being tainted by fraud. Not accepting an election result because of suspected fraud is different than not obeying a law (that is another subject entirely).

If election fraud is suspected, accepting it is not good for the country or for democracy.

Suspected election fraud uncontested can only lead to more instances of election fraud and a deterioration of confidence in election results.

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