“Questioning If An Election Will Be ‘Rigged’ Strikes At The Heart Of Democracy”

NPR:

But American democracy is founded on peaceful transitions. President Obama reaffirmed in a news conference Thursday that even if Trump, someone he has called “unfit” to serve in the office, were to win the presidency, Obama would do everything he could to make sure Trump is as prepared as possible in a peaceful transition.

Cries about the validity of an election are usually heard more often in third-world countries, places with authoritarian regimes lacking established democracies and fair checks and balances. They’re the kinds of places the U.S. and United Nations might send election monitors. For the voting process to be called into question, experts say, it is a threat to American democracy itself.

“I think it’s a dangerous game because our democracy depends upon losers having confidence that the election was fairly run,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at University of California-Irvine. “That’s really what separates democracies from other places: Losers accept being on the short end of an election result. So I do think that there is reason to be concerned.”

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