TYPES OF ELECTORAL FRAUD

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.