Not everything will run perfectly on Election Day. Still, US elections are remarkably reliable

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Election Day, immoderate voting lines will apt beryllium agelong and immoderate precincts whitethorn tally retired of ballots. An predetermination agency website could spell down temporarily and ballot-counting machines will jam. Or group who thief tally elections mightiness conscionable enactment for illustration nan humans they are, forgetting their cardinal to a section polling spot truthful it has to unfastened later than scheduled.

These kinds of glitches person occurred passim nan history of U.S. elections. Yet predetermination workers crossed America person consistently pulled disconnected statesmanlike elections and accurately tallied nan results — and there’s nary logic to judge this twelvemonth will beryllium immoderate different.

Elections are a instauration of democracy. They besides are quality exercises that, contempt each nan laws and rules governing really they should run, tin sometimes look to beryllium messy. They’re conducted by predetermination officials and volunteers successful thousands of jurisdictions crossed nan United States, from mini townships to sprawling municipality counties pinch much voters than immoderate states person people.

It’s a uniquely American strategy that, contempt its imperfections, reliably produces certified outcomes that guidelines up to scrutiny. That’s existent moreover successful an era of misinformation and hyperpartisanship.

“Things will spell wrong,” said Jen Easterly, nan head of nan U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

None of these will mean nan predetermination is tainted aliases rigged aliases is being stolen. But Easterly said predetermination offices request to beryllium transparent astir nan hiccups truthful they tin get up of misinformation and attempts to utilization regular problems arsenic a measurement to undermine assurance successful nan predetermination results.

“At nan extremity of nan day, we request to admit things will spell wrong. They ever do,” Easterly said. “It will really travel down to really authorities and section predetermination officials pass astir those things going wrong.”

An predetermination problem? It’s apt quality error

It wasn’t that agelong agone erstwhile American voters accepted nan results, moreover if their preferred statesmanlike campaigner lost.

Even successful 2000, erstwhile 104 cardinal votes came down to a 5-to-4 Supreme Court determination that efficaciously made Republican George W. Bush nan president, his opponent, Democrat Al Gore, quickly conceded. The republic moved connected peacefully.

Times person changed dramatically since then.

The internet, mendacious claims and a voting nationalist susceptible to conspiratorial theories astir wide elector fraud person changed that. Trust successful nan strategy is low, peculiarly among Republican voters whose perceptions person been shaped by a dependable drumbeat of lies astir nan 2020 election by Donald Trump, nan erstwhile president who is nan Republican nominee connected nan Nov. 5 ballot.

At his run rallies, Trump continues to claim that nan only measurement he tin suffer is if nan different broadside rigs nan election. In fact, it would beryllium virtually intolerable for anyone to rig a U.S. statesmanlike title fixed nan decentralized quality of nan country’s elections, which are tally by thousands of municipal aliases region voting jurisdictions.

What is much apt are simple mistakes and method mishaps that hap during each election.

“When elections are very adjacent and you person to look nether nan hood, sometimes you find immoderate problems. Almost ever those problems are nan consequence of quality error, incompetence — not malfeasance,” said Rick Hasen, an predetermination rule master and professor astatine nan University of California, Los Angeles.

“Both elector fraud and predetermination administrator fraud is presently very uncommon successful nan United States. When it does happen, it’s not that difficult to drawback because of nan safeguards successful nan system.”

Why do we request this discussion?

Distrust successful elections is existent and has superior consequences. Lies astir the 2020 election being rigged were a catalyst for nan Jan. 6, 2021, attack connected nan Capitol.

This has travel contempt Trump and his friends losing dozens of tribunal cases aimed astatine reversing his nonaccomplishment to Democrat Joe Biden. Even a committee Trump created while president to analyse nan 2016 predetermination successful hopes of identifying wide elector fraud recovered none. Special constabulary units established by a fewer Republican governors came up likewise empty-handed erstwhile they searched for wide fraud during nan 2022 midterm elections.

In summation to nan tribunal cases, Trump’s ain attorney general and reviews, recounts and audits successful nan statesmanlike battleground states recovered nary grounds of wide fraud and affirmed Biden’s victory.

That hasn’t mattered.

As precocious arsenic 2023, a sizable information of Republicans believed Biden was not nan legitimately elected, and predetermination conspiracy theories person taken root successful Republican-leaning communities.

It would beryllium incorrect to opportunity location is ne'er any fraud associated pinch elections. But successful nan 2020 election, an Associated Press investigation successful nan battleground states wherever Trump disputed his nonaccomplishment found an magnitude excessively small to change nan election. In astir cases, it was individuals acting alone, not arsenic portion of a expansive conspiracy to propulsion nan election.

“The communicative of nan past fewer decades is that voting systems successful nan United States are very secure,” said Robert Lieberman, a governmental subject professor astatine Johns Hopkins University.

If not fraud, past what should we expect?

Basic mistakes, whether quality aliases technical.

In Jackson, Mississippi, a ballot problem was blamed connected inexperience and deficiency of training. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, inexperience was again nan culprit erstwhile polling places ran retired of ballots.

Sometimes nan envelopes utilized to return nan mailed ballots tin create problems. The Pennsylvania Department of State precocious announced connected X that because of precocious humidity levels successful overmuch of nan state, “some voters are uncovering that their mail-in ballots person nan return letter cover already sealed.” It advised voters to interaction their section predetermination agency for adjacent steps.

Paper was nan culprit successful a Maricopa County, Arizona, successful 2022 erstwhile nan ballot printers had problems and caused ample backups successful elector lines.

Potential problems connected nan horizon

One of nan awesome concerns heading into nan 2024 statesmanlike predetermination is nan high turnover successful predetermination offices crossed nan country, successful peculiar successful immoderate of nan statesmanlike battlegrounds, said Edward B. Foley, a rule professor who leads Ohio State University’s predetermination rule program.

Before nan 2022 midterms, for example, 10 of Nevada’s 17 counties had turnover among their clerk aliases registration positions, which oversee voting.

Threats and harassment from those who judge predetermination conspiracy theories person fueled nan attrition. Despite each nan training predetermination workers receive, there’s nary substitute for nan acquisition of going done a awesome predetermination cycle.

Many of those who person near had years and moreover decades of experience. In immoderate cases, they person been replaced by group pinch little aliases nary experience, and who at times person peddled conspiracy theories.

“If you’re looking for thing to watch retired for and beryllium concerned about,” Foley said, “that is 1 place.”

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Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy and Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

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Read much astir really U.S. elections activity astatine Explaining Election 2024, a bid from The Associated Press aimed astatine helping make consciousness of nan American democracy. The AP receives support from respective backstage foundations to heighten its explanatory sum of elections and democracy. See much astir AP’s populist inaugural here. The AP is solely responsible for each content.