For a moment, may I please opine on the allegation that the Democratic primary has been "rigged?"

As someone who has studied and observed elections in countries where election rigging is very real, it offends and worries me.

A thread.

Friends who ran for local office in Russia were denied a place on the ballot because their forms were stapled, not paperclipped. Election officials scrutinized signatures they had painstakingly collected.

This is election rigging.

Russian election observation group Golos was declared a "foreign agent" by the Kremlin after uncovering systematic inaccuracies in the 2011 Duma elections. That label made their work uncovering election disruptions much more difficult.

This is election rigging.

In the 2018 Russian Presidential Election, opposition candidates were denied media coverage by Russia's state-owned media, and leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny wasn't allowed on the ballot.

This is election rigging.

That same election had some notable instances of ballot box stuffing. Others in recent Russian history had instances of carousel voting.



This is election rigging.

In other countries in the post-Soviet space, ruling parties abuse administrative resources to which they have access, privileging incumbent campaigns.

This is election rigging.

What is not election rigging: having a historically diverse set of candidates winnowed down by a democratic process. Having those candidates endorse other candidates with whom their positions align.

Don't get me wrong: there is DEFINITELY ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT in how we run primaries and elections in this country; many of those criticisms have been particularly strongly felt this primary cycle, particularly for minorities and women.

But decrying the process as "rigged" is an incredibly serious accusation that could potentially have ripple effects up to and including the peaceful transfer of power between administrations.

In Ukraine last spring, after a particularly contentious campaign, Volodymyr Zelensky unseated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko after one term. The international community held its breath, but power transferred peacefully. No accusations of "rigging."

All I'm asking is that people using this terminology understand its seriousness. Election rigging is real in the countries I study, where voters yearn to have their ballots counted and voices heard. Amassing fewer votes than another candidate is not evidence of rigging. /end

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