[EL] Can we say elections are stolen?

[Margaret Groarke]

David Becker earlier today suggested that both sides of the political
divide drop the language of "stolen" elections.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

Is it never legitimate to say that an election is stolen? What would be the
conditions that would allow us to call an election "stolen"?

If someone engaged in illegal acts which caused the outcome of the election
to shift from one candidate to another, would that not be stealing? Would
there be legal acts -- passing legislation that served to disenfranchise
your political opponents, let's say -- that constituted stealing? Or is
that something else? Should the fact, as David proposed, that the courts
considered and rejected the allegations of illicit actions make it
inappropriate to call an election stolen? I'm thinking, again, of Rick
Hasen's discussion of the GA gubernatorial election in *Election Meltdown. *

Clearly, it's a problem when a large number of Americans believe that a
legitimately conducted presidential election is not legitimate. Does it
reduce the possibility of this if the supporters of Dino Rossi or Stacy
Abrams stop calling the elections they lost "stolen"? Do we want to
establish a clearer definition of what would constitute a "stolen"
election? Was the North Carolina 9th a stolen election?

Is there any reason to believe that if Democrats didn't use the language of
stolen elections, Trump and Giuliani wouldn't be using it now?




-- 
*Margaret Groarke*
*Professor, Political Science*
*Coordinator, Community Engaged Learning*
https://jaspercommunityengagement.blogspot.com/
Make an appointment to talk with me
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Bronx, NY 10471
Phone: 718-862-7943
Fax: 718-862-8044
margaret.groarke at manhattan.edu <name.name at manhattan.edu>
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