About this time every four years, amidst the political slander thrown between parties, the issue of voter fraud surfaces as ammo for the underdog to cry foul.
James Gardner, a UB Law School professor and an authority on U.S. elections, says that these claims are generally unfounded. Gardner believes the media often increases public doubt in the election process in a quest for more viewers.
"The fact that 99.9 percent of all elections are run completely incident free is not going to be a headline story; it's not news," Gardner said.
He believes some of the problems can be attributed to the 24-hour news networks that live on these types of stories.
Misconceptions of the voting process can be harmful, because according to Gardner, the more dissatisfied a person becomes with the political process, the more likely he or she is to remove him- or herself from any political participation whatsoever.
"It seems to me that there is an erosion of public trust in the administration of the electoral process," Gardner said.
The hysteria fueled by claims of voter fraud and voting error has led to the enactment of multiple anti-fraud measures that seem to do more harm than good. While the efforts of these acts were meant to curb illegal and unintended votes from being cast, they have also kept eligible voters away from the polls.
One of the most common anti-fraud methods used at polling places in some states is the requirement of a photo ID to vote, which may cause a small portion of the electorate to be alienated from the voting process.
"Not everybody has a driver's license...you can go down to the DMV and get a driver's license [or a non-driver photo ID], but you need to be able to get there, it takes time, you can't go to work that day," Gardner said. "A lot of people aren't going to bother."
While it may not be a large group that is turned away, it is most likely larger than any group of people impersonating voters, Gardner said.
There is a perceived presence of partisan undertones in voting regulation. According to Gardner, the right-wing may have an interest in supporting this type of requirement since minorities and the elderly, two groups that are historically supporters of Democratic candidates, may have difficulty or be unwilling to obtain a valid photo ID.
Republicans justify these protective measures by claiming that many liberal groups are sending ineligible voters to the polls.
"The charge from the right is that Democrats are going out into poor neighborhoods and registering people to vote who are not entitled to vote," Gardner said. Since the 2000 presidential election, election administrators have tried to perfect voting technology. According to Gardner, after the disputed election, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which provided federal funds for states to update their voting methods.
Many states used the funds to purchase expensive touch-screen voting machines. It is still unknown whether or not the new systems put in place across the country have been beneficial.
"...This has just created a world of unintended consequences; the electronic machines have been worse by far," Gardner said. "There's all sorts of security problems that didn't exist with paper [ballots], somebody could hack in; apparently the code is insecure."
Some students have seen an improvement in the voting system.
"The absentee ballot system has really been improved since the 2000 election; it's much easier to receive and mail your ballot," said Nicole Komin, a junior political science major.
Kate Tunison, a senior English major, blames the voters themselves.
"I think people don't read the instructions on the voting machines carefully enough," she said. "I think a lot of unintended votes get cast that way."
For others it is unclear how fair and accurate our elections are.
"I'm not sure if there's voter fraud," said Jon Strible, a junior informatics major. "I don't think there's any way that any of us can be sure."
As for the chances of controversy and more allegations of voter fraud in the upcoming election, Gardner is less than optimistic.
"I hope it's not close," he said.
