The Forensics Of Election Fraud

A forensics approach to detecting election fraud -- The fingerprints of fraud -- Russia -- Ukraine 2004 -- Ukraine 2006 and 2007 -- The United States.

Allegations of fraud have marred recent elections around the world, from Russia and Italy to Mexico and the United States. Such charges raise fundamental questions about the quality of democracy in each country. Yet election fraud and, more broadly, electoral manipulation remain remarkably understudied concepts. There is no consensus on what constitutes election fraud, let alone how to detect and deter it. E lection Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation brings together experts on election law, election administration, and U.S. and comparative politics to address these critical issues. The first part of the book, which opens with an essay by Craig Donsanto of the U.S. Department of Justice, examines the U.S. understanding of election fraud in comparative perspective. In the second part of the book, D. Roderick Kiewiet, Jonathan N. Katz, and other scholars of U.S. elections draw on a wide variety of sources, including survey data, incident reports, and state-collected fraud allegations, to measure the extent and nature of election fraud in the United States. Finally, the third part of the book analyzes techniques for detecting and potentially deterring fraud. These strategies include both statistical analysis, as Walter R. Mebane, Jr. and Peter Ordeshook explain, and the now widespread practice of election monitoring, which Alberto Simpser examines in an intriguing essay.

Forensic Balloting - Combating Electoral Fraud is a unique book outlining a spectrum of electoral fraud schemes at various stages of the electoral cycle. The book advocates for the development and application of elections forensics expertise to aid the resolution of electoral disputes.

A powerful new tool for all forensic accountants, or anyone whoanalyzes data that may have been altered Benford's Law gives the expected patterns of the digits in thenumbers in tabulated data such as town and city populations orMadoff's fictitious portfolio returns. Those digits, in unaltereddata, will not occur in equal proportions; there is a large biastowards the lower digits, so much so that nearly one-half of allnumbers are expected to start with the digits 1 or 2. Thesepatterns were originally discovered by physicist Frank Benford inthe early 1930s, and have since been found to apply to alltabulated data. Mark J. Nigrini has been a pioneer in applyingBenford's Law to auditing and forensic accounting, even before hisgroundbreaking 1999 Journal of Accountancy article introducing thisuseful tool to the accounting world. In Benford's Law, Nigrinishows the widespread applicability of Benford's Law and itspractical uses to detect fraud, errors, and other anomalies. Explores primary, associated, and advanced tests, all describedwith data sets that include corporate payments data and electiondata Includes ten fraud detection studies, including vendor fraud,payroll fraud, due diligence when purchasing a business, and taxevasion Covers financial statement fraud, with data from Enron, AIG,and companies that were the target of hedge fund short sales Looks at how to detect Ponzi schemes, including data on Madoff,Waxenberg, and more Examines many other applications, from the Clinton tax returnsand the charitable gifts of Lehman Brothers to tax evasion andnumber invention Benford's Law has 250 figures and uses 50 interestingauthentic and fraudulent real-world data sets to explain boththeory and practice, and concludes with an agenda and directionsfor future research. The companion website adds additionalinformation and resources.

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.

Following the 2016 election, America endured three years of extensive and incessant investigations, fevered analysis, and, eventually, impeachment hearings - all premised on an assertion that, somehow, Russia "hacked" the election. The U.S. government spent tens of millions of dollars. It chased nearly every allegation. It had virtually unlimited (and sometimes illegal) access to public, government, and private information ... and it came up empty handed. The only place it did not look for the alleged Russian "hack" was in th only systems that could have been "hacked" the electronic voting, imaging, and tabulating machines on which the election was conducted and the software that controls them. The story of the 2020 election is much the same. Despite thousands of citizen reports and signed affidavits attesting to significant irregularities and at least one forensic audit of an electronic voting system claiming that it was - in fact - "hacked", Secretaries of State around the country have repeatedly denied citizens their the legal right to observe, contest, and audit the election. A real "hack" can only be identified by looking at how the voting system operates, starting with the machines, the software, and the data it generates, including ballots and ballot envelopes, voter rolls, and adjudication logs, and at those who had access to the systems while they were in operation. This brief reviews the last-minute changes to the election process in the contested states and the magnitude of the resulting fraud the changes were designed to facilitate. It also looks at the status of the legal challenges where judges have dismissed cases before hearing evidence, and how both courts and election officials have refused access to the only systems that can be "hacked" the electronic voting systems. It should come as no surprise that a full 47% of the American people believe that electoral fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election. They understand that something is amiss.

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.