A Symbiotic Relationship: Vote Fraud and Electoral Reform in the Gilded Age

Reynolds, John F.

doi:10.2307/1171281

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Historically, these barriers were also intended as a means of disenfranchising specific groups of voters, such as certain immigrant groups, African Americans, or the poor (Allen and Allen 1981; Burnham 1986;Keyssar 2000;Reynolds 1993), although contemporary supporters of such laws dispute these intentions. Therefore, the goal of election reformers was not simply to prevent fraud but also to disenfranchise voters.…”

Section: Influence Of Beliefs and Identities On Decision Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

Atkeson¹,

Kerevel²,

Alvarez³

et al. 2014

The Journal of Politics

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As street-level bureaucrats, poll workers bear the primary responsibility for implementing voter identification requirements. Voter identification requirements are not implemented equally across groups of voters, and poll workers exercise substantial discretion in how they apply election law. In states with minimal and varying identification requirements, poll workers appear to treat especially minority voters differently, requesting more stringent voter identification. We explain why poll workers are different from other street-level bureaucrats and how traditional mechanisms of control have little impact on limiting poll-worker discretion. We test why many poll workers appear not to follow the law using a post-election survey of New Mexico poll workers. We find little evidence that race, training, or partisanship matters. Instead, poll worker attitudes toward photo-identification policies and their educational attainment influences implementation of voter-identification laws.

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Section: Influence Of Beliefs and Identities On Decision Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

Atkeson¹,

Kerevel²,

Alvarez³

et al. 2014

The Journal of Politics

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“…Fraud encompasses actions aimed at manipulating election registries and ballots, as well as those aimed at manipulating voters themselves (Birch, 2011). Although the exact extent and nature of such fraud in the American case remains disputed historically (Allen & Allen, 1981; Argersinger, 1985; Burnham, 1974; Campbell, 2003, 2005; Converse, 1972; Cox & Kousser, 1981; Gist, 1961; Jensen, 1971; Keyssar, 2000; Mayfield, 1993; Reynolds, 1980, 1993; Rusk, 1974; Summers, 2001), according to most observers, the turn of the last century marked the heyday of electoral manipulation (Allen & Allen, 1981; Harris, 1934; Sikes, 1928).…”

Section: Election Fraud and Ballot Reform: Theoretical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illicit Tactics as Substitutes

Kuo

Teorell

2016

Comparative Political Studies

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What is the relationship between ballot reforms and electoral malpractice? This article contributes to the growing comparative politics literature on the causes of election fraud in democratizing countries using the case of the 19th-century United States. We examine the adoption of the Australian ballot and disenfranchisement laws, and estimate their effects on multiple types of election fraud. Using a new measure of fraud in elections to the House of Representatives from 1860 to 1930, we find that the Australian ballot and disenfranchisement measures reduced vote-buying and voter intimidation. However, we further find that the Australian ballot had an "iatrogenic effect" of increasing registration and ballot fraud. Voting secrecy therefore led to substitution of one illicit electoral tactic for another.

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“…Perhaps those who would steal elections are innovating new ways to better conceal the evidentiary trails that they leave behind. An alternative explanation is that modern American elections have changed radically from those in the past in which corruption was a well-documented reality (Campbell, 2005;Cox & Kousser, 1981;Reynolds, 1993;Summers, 2001). Computerized and instantaneous database information access has simplified the task of monitoring registrations and voting behavior.…”

Section: Voter Rolls As An Effective Tool To Combat Electoral Fraudmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overton (2007) argues that better monitoring of elections and cleaning up of registration rolls are more important to election integrity than voter ID laws. Better training of election workers or using election methods that minimize the need for poll workers are also important (Alvarez & Hall, 2006;Reynolds, 1993). Election administrators can also compare voter rolls across jurisdictions to eliminate dual registrations and identify cases of voting in two different jurisdictions in the same election.…”

Section: Voter Rolls As An Effective Tool To Combat Electoral Fraudmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Election Fraud Using Orphan and Low Propensity Voters

Christensen

Schultz

2013

American Politics Research

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Although voter ID laws have become a hot topic of political debate, existing scholarship has failed to produce conclusive evidence concerning the existence or frequency of electoral fraud, especially the type of fraud that would be prevented by photo identification laws and signature verification protocols for voting by mail. We propose a new method of measuring election fraud, especially identity fraud, that is superior to previous measurement efforts because it measures actual instances of fraud rather than waiting for conclusive proof of fraud produced in a criminal prosecution. We test our method in multiple jurisdictions, including two known cases of electoral fraud, and we find no additional cases of fraud. We speculate that public access to voting and registration records play an important role in preventing this type of election fraud, suggesting that these practices are perhaps more important than voter ID laws in preventing election fraud.

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A Symbiotic Relationship: Vote Fraud and Electoral Reform in the Gilded Age

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

Illicit Tactics as Substitutes

Identifying Election Fraud Using Orphan and Low Propensity Voters

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