Short summary of well known electoral fraud was explained in
the Metro newspaper of Wednesday, March 21, 2012, and thought I document it for
future reference.
At least the non-democratic nations (e.g. China, Cuba) won’t
have this issue as it only applies to only the so called “democratic nations”.
If Africa nations such as Nigeria can eliminate (or adversely reduce) electoral
fraud, then they will no doubt eliminate (or reduce) chance of getting the
wrong person into power.
Gerrymandering
Essentially moving the goalposts, this is when the electoral
boundaries are drawn in such a way as to produce a certain result. This could
mean grouping certain demographic groups within one voting area
Intimidation
Violence and threats of violence can often be used to
pressure results of an election. But it could also be economic threats such as
an employer dictating which way their workforce should vote.
Vote Buying
Simple but effective, and used in many countries. In
Thailand, 30% of household heads said they were offered payment during the 1996
elections.
Ballot Stuffing
This is when someone votes multiple times. In some countries
‘election ink’ - a semi permanent dye –
is used to help spot someone who has already voted. This tactics was said to
have been employed during the March 2012 Russian presidential election which Vladimir
Putin received 63.64% (46,602,075) of the votes. People were said to have been
transported in mini-buses from one polling station to another.
Disenfranchisement
Often involves higher levels of corruption. For example,
officials could remove someone by ‘mistake’ from the electoral roll. Other
techniques could be used to inconvenience certain voting groups, such as
holding election on a holy day.
Tampering
This is rare form of fraud as electronic voting machines are
difficult to access. However there is potential for someone to corrupt the
software to favour certain candidates.