The baseless claims following the 2020 US election have broken trust in the democratic process for choosing a president. Still about half of the country believes that the election was stolen or rigged. In reality, US elections are some of the most secure in the world, and any claims of election fraud not backed by evidence are plain wrong. This wikiHow will show you how to explain the security of United States elections. [1] X Research source [2] X Research source [3] X Research source
The next US election is a Midterm Election and it is on Tuesday, November 03, 2026
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Steps
Method 1
Method 1 of 4:
Understanding the General Process
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Show that democracy is a slow process. Despite advances in voting technology and procedures, democracy still takes a long time to carry out. Due to the large influx of mail-in ballots, it took seven days for all the ballots cast to be fully counted and recounted. [1] X Research source
- If someone says that there is fraud because they do not know the result right away, [2] X Research source point them to India. India makes every effort to get every citizen to cast votes without having to travel more than one mile, from dense urban areas to sparse suburban and rural areas. Because of the hurdles accompanied by including more than 900 million people in the election, India's elections take one month to complete. [4] X Research source
- All elections are managed at the county level, and different counties and states have different rules on election procedures.
- Elections are not a game. Despite how the media portrays elections by coloring states that candidates have won, the purpose of elections is not to win or lose. The purpose of elections is to choose a person who gets to hold an office. [1] X Research source
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Highlight that election boards and polling stations are required by state and federal law to represent all political parties equally. In federal elections, that means that at every station, no party has a majority. You will always have polling stations and polling boards with bipartisan or nonpartisan teams working together. [1] X Research sourceAdvertisement
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Explain that widespread voter fraud is extremely difficult. Every state and county has its own rules regarding elections. While at the small scale some may have been able to attack voting systems, the number of fraudulent votes is insignificant and not enough to sway an entire election. A number of checks are in place to throw out suspicious ballots. [1] X Research sourceAdvertisement
Method 2
Method 2 of 4:
Debunking Mail-in Fraud
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Explain how mail-in voting works. Postal voting has been used since as early as the American Civil War and has been expanded even before the COVID-19 pandemic. With voting by mail, you drop your ballot either into a USPS mailbox or into an official drop box that is then collected by election officials on election day for counting. [1] X Research source
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Show what happens after you cast your mail-in vote. On election day, names and signatures of people on the envelopes are checked against voting records, and if they do not match, then the ballot is tossed out. If they do match, then the ballot is opened and placed in a secured ballot box.
- After you cast your vote, regardless of means, your name is crossed off from voting records, and you will not be able to vote again.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 4:
Debunking Voting Machine Fraud
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Know that EVMs are a black box. Since only those with access to the source code and/or hardware can see inside one, it is very easy to claim fraud with electronic voting machines. That does not mean fraud happens with EVMs.
- EVMs in the United States are not connected to the Internet for security reasons. Despite all the claims of EVMs being used to change votes remotely or are being connected to the Internet, none of that actually happened.
- Election officials were unable to find evidence of widespread fraud with Dominion Voting Systems. Those who continuously made claims about fraud with such machines were subject to lawsuits and/or had their videos/shows pulled to avoid defamation lawsuits from Dominion and other voting companies.
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Explain that EVMs print receipts of voting for later verification. This receipt is completely anonymized and akin to a physical paper ballot. These are kept separately and are used whenever an audit is requested.
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Show that the problems with EVMs are not with fraud but with reliability. Some EVMs are very old and may not function the way they are meant to. This is not the result of hacking but the result of poor machine maintenance. Even then, to counter this problem, poll workers can easily switch to paper voting. [5] X Research sourceAdvertisement
Method 4
Method 4 of 4:
Debunking Other Forms of Fraud
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Show that there is no evidence of widespread dead voter registration in any state. In Georgia, out of the millions of ballots that were cast there, they only ever found two dead voters registered. [6] X Research source Dead voter registration is extremely difficult as states keep databases on deaths to avoid something like this from happening.
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Highlight that any attempt to undermine the election or to engage in voter fraud is a federal crime. Anyone who has attempted to cast doubt on the election by double voting or voter impersonation has almost always ended up getting caught. [7] X Research source And those that do get convicted are usually banned from participating in any future election.
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Explain that saying something is true does not make it true. This applies anywhere on the Internet and in society. If you say over and over again that someone who lost won the election, it does not suddenly make them the winner of the election. You could stand on a soapbox, broadcast it on live TV, or repeatedly post it in all caps on social media, and it will still not make it true.
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Point out that the results from election night and beyond are unofficial until states certify them. News networks gather data from state officials to make projections on who will win, but it does not mean that one candidate wins or not. For example, the 2000 election results had a problem where some voters in Florida using punch-card ballots voted for the wrong candidate. This was an actual irregularity that was not baseless that delayed the results of the election by several weeks. [1] X Research source [8] X Research sourceAdvertisement
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 https://www.vox.com/videos/2020/11/3/21548310/election-results-count-votes-which-states
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol
- ↑ https://www.dhs.gov/topic/election-security
- ↑ https://www.vox.com/2019/7/5/20681532/borders-india-worlds-biggest-election
- ↑ https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/3/29/17173110/us-voting-machines-failing-midterm-election
- ↑ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/georgia-investigating-two-cases-of-dead-people-voting
- ↑ https://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/10/25/cbs4-investigation-finds-people-voting-twice/
- ↑ https://www.history.com/news/2000-election-bush-gore-votes-supreme-court
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