Amplifying unproven election fraud claims hurts democracy
“When did you stop beating your wife?”
Remember that one from back in the 70s?
It was an old trick designed to smear politicians. Even by denying the accusation, it planted in people’s minds that the question was credible and the allegation was plausible. They even did studies on the impact of that type of question. Those studies demonstrated that how a question is framed can alter a person’s opinion, not only by creating bias but actually changing the way people remember a past event.
Today’s version of that is the question about the integrity of elections.
“If you won, you must have cheated.”
Whether there’s evidence or not, just making the statement and getting someone to respond to it gives the entire premise credence, planting in people’s minds the belief that the election process has been manipulated and corrupted.
That belief undermines the integrity of our election system and undermines the foundation of our democracy.
That’s not hyperbole. If you can’t trust elections, then you can’t trust the people who get elected, and you can’t trust any of the work they do. It raises doubts about our whole system of governance.
On Wednesday, the Rotterdam Town Board played right into the anti-integrity effort by calling for a state audit of last year’s general election based on the unsubstantiated claims of a group of election-deniers.
The board called a state audit “much overdue” and said it would help restore...
Continue without agreeing We value your privacy With your agreement, we and our 386 partners use cookies or similar technologies to store, access, and process personal data like your visit on this...