Posted on 11/25/2018 10:25:40 AM PST by Kaslin
The political climate in the United States has been perpetually explosive for what feels like generations. This sentiment was evident as voters went to the polls for the 2018 midterm election. As a result of this, the 2018 midterm had the highest voter turnout since 1914. Despite the passion exhibited by both parties this election, in the shadow looms a serious issue that can affect the very foundation of our democracy. That issue is the growing distrust in our election results.
According to recent surveys, 31% of American voters have “not very much” or “no confidence at all” in our election results. Furthermore, one-third of Americans believe foreign governments had influenced the outcome of the recent midterms. This can be partially attributed to the American media's narrative framing of the 2016 Presidential election as illegitimate, and partially decided by foreign entities.
There are a number of additional factors that also have contributed to the growing lack of faith in the electoral process. It is no secret that foreign governments have attempted on multiple occasions to influence American elections to suit their agenda.
In 1996, China attempted to influence domestic American politics by attempting to assist in the reelection of President Bill Clinton. Dubbed “Chinagate,” the scandal was born out of a United States Department of Justice investigation into fund-raising activities that uncovered evidence of Chinese agents directing contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee. In addition, just before this year’s midterm election, Facebook discovered that multiple accounts associated with the Russian based Internet Research Agency were engaging in a disinformation campaign.
We have seen more of this weaponizing of social media in order to sway public opinion. In August and October this year, Facebook discovered two more influence campaigns spearheaded by Russia and Iran. Some of the accounts involved in these operations were followed by nearly one million people in the United States and Britain. Twitter also reported accounts from foreign actors that engaged in disinformation campaigns related to the election.
At first glance, one might not think that these social media operations would have a minimal effect on the midterm election. However, when put into perspective, the reality is they could have a significant impact.
According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center, 68% of American adults get their news through social media with 43% through Facebook and 12% through Twitter. Browser hijackers, like the Google Redirect Virus, are designed to replace the information and stories seen on leading websites and apps including Google, Twitter, Facebook, and others. This can easily be leveraged to corrupt election results. If even a nominal portion of this demographic is influenced by foreign propaganda, these misinformation campaigns can potentially sway close elections.
These influence campaigns are not the only tools used to manipulate the elections. There have also been multiple reports of hacking attacks to disrupt American votes. These cyber-attacks employ the use of malware such as Trojans and Ransomware to target political campaigns or Denial of Service attacks to state websites.
And of course, there is the State of Florida. Machine recounts, “hanging chads,” Brenda Snipes, thousands of missing votes and the late submission of revised vote tallies have all worked to undermine the perceived legitimacy of election results in one of the most critical swing states in the country.
While all the aforementioned issues affecting our democratic process are serious, the long-term problem may prove to be a lack of trust with election results. Citizens may begin to question the validity of election outcomes and the resulting disillusion and disengagement may have more of a negative influence on our democracy than any foreign power could ever desire.
The protests and court challenges that follow every attempt at voter I.D. laws is proof to me that there has been organized and routine fraud for a long time.
And that has made me lose faith. This year was the kicker and has crushed my expectations for 2020.
I lost confidence when JFK beat Nixon. I was a teen in IL. Nothing since has changed in IL.
The Governors of Florida have not done much since November 2000 ... it has been 18 years.
Jeb! 8 years ..
Crist (EH!)
Rick Scott? 8 years
Soon DeSantis
“losing” should read “lost”.
Only the Citizens who had their Sovereign Vote stolen by someone who is not eligible to cast a Ballot.
There isn’t a Democrat alive who has a problem with Election integrity. They say count every Vote. We say count every American Citizens Vote.
Just think how us California Conservatives feel
Never gonna happen cause Dems and media (same same) - who made it happen - now have a system that empowers them.
Any attempt to clean up the voting system, Dems, media and squishy RINOs will scream that Republicans are trying to game and cheat our “honest” voting system, and meat head low info couch voters will predictably fall right in line.
Forgot about that one!!
Sickening, but is proof positive that they cannot win without cheating. They get the urban votes, all day. But, they still need to cheat to pull if off.
And, I forgot about the Blank Panthers in Philly. Defendants don’t show up for court and case dropped. Can you or I not show up for court and have the case dismissed? Sickening!!
Focusing on campaigning misdeeds is diversionary from the actual voting and the counting thereof. Dead voters, those voters who vote in two or more venues, non citizen voters,voters who use stolen identities, and voters who vote two or more times are the real problems which democrats are intent to protect.
Ya don't even need an ID let alone be a citizen! If you're motivated you can even vote all day long!
I lost confidence in the system a long time ago. Growing up in Chicago, the last Republican mayor was in office in 1931. So 87 years later, Democrats only, yes, I’d say from observation, thru word and deed, there is no faith in fair elections in Chicago, or Cook County, IL for that matter. By hook or by crook, they win, over and over and over again. Banana Republic would be too kind a description.
“one-third of Americans believe foreign governments had influenced the outcome”
The smart ones know that is democrats and Soros that corrupt our elections.
Yes. Confidence is already gone.
I always show my voter registration as it has all the information on it that they need. I show my military depended card as my ID. My husband is 81 and this is the second year he stopped voting. I had to tell him who to vote for and that is not good.
What do you mean no absentee or tentative ballots allowed, what are tentative ballots?
They didn’t show and were CONVICTED in absentia. The punishment phase was referred to the DOJ and HOLDER DROPPED THE CHARGES. That Admin was corrupt from the get-go, but were not and will never be held accountable because of RACISM. And we seem to be heading down the road again........
Yup!
As long as the dem fraud machine is in operation, yes.
We need machines that cannot be hacked, we need voter ID requirements and time spent on clearing out the voter rolls, we need the votes to be cast on ONE day with the exception of the military, whose votes should ALWAYS be counted, no matter how long the USPS delays the, we need well supervised and accountable counting of the votes.
You live in New Jersey, what would you know about Florida?
I thought that’s what happened, but wasn’t sure so I didn’t make the comment. Either way, sickening to the core.
Now!What kind of question is that?How could a voter not loose trust in our electoral system when democrats so conveniently find votes in closets and cars.When those votes are found they always are of benefit to the rat candidate.
I have never during all of my years voting ever heard of a conservative or Republican winning election after a car load of ballots were found following an election.
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