POL 401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Association Of Community Organizations For Reform Now, Herd Behavior
10 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Election fraud is a common and predictable consequence of both underlying conspiratorial thinking and motivated partisan reasoning. Conspiracy theories=unsubstantiated accusatory beliefs positing small groups working in secret, for their own benefit, and against the common good (common good=majority rule over free and fair elections) Election=all forms of fraud that may affect elections, including casting multiple ballots, casting illegal ballots, voter suppression, bribery, dirty tricks, and fraudulent counting. Poor, minority, elderly most likely to believe in conspiracy theories. Fraud driven by republican ex: after mitt romney"s defeat in 2012, 49 percent of. Republicans believed that the community activist group, acorn, had stolen the election for barack obama (only 6 percent of democrats believed this). Republicans are especially prone to believing that people are casting ballots they should not, whereas democrats are more concerned that they are not able to cast ballots. Democratic electoral fraud conspiracy theories focus on institutional actors, such as state legislators or state elections officials.
