There was a time when saying a federal election was rigged would have been an extraordinary political claim.
In the 2000 presidential election, with the outcome hanging by a chad and resting on only a handful of votes in Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a count of uncounted ballots, effectually awarding the presidency to George W. Bush. Bush’s opponent, then Vice President Al Gore, disagreed with the decision but graciously conceded.
Rather than rail about judges, Gore called the country to unity, saying the election’s “very closeness can serve to remind us that we are one people with a shared history and a shared destiny.”
Instead of calling on supporters to fight for their political party, he asked them to serve their country: “This is America, and we put country before party; we will stand together behind our new president.” Instead of attempting to circumvent the election process, he acceded to it, performing his job as vice president in certifying the election results.
How things have changed 26 years.
A pillar of right-wing ideology
In November 2020, election denialism became a core tenet of right-wing ideology. After losing the election to Joe Biden, Donald Trump spent the final months of his term desperately attempting to cling to power, insisting the election had been stolen from him. These claims persisted despite repeated investigations, court decisions, recounts and statements from his own administration that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
“Say a lie loudly enough, often enough and those who want to believe it to be true will do so.”
Say a lie loudly enough, often enough and those who want to believe it to be true will do so. Because of Trump’s repeated claims, more than a quarter of Americans — and half of Republicans — still believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged. In 2024, election denialism became a litmus test of loyalty for the Trump regime. Those who accepted Trump’s defeat were out; those who promoted the Big Lie were in.
After Trump allies took control of the Republican National Committee, staff members seeking to keep their jobs were asked whether they believed the 2020 election had been stolen. After Trump’s win, potential White House staffers were asked the same question. It goes all the way up to the top. Trump has filled his administration with officials who have either promoted the false claim that the election was stolen or participated in efforts to overturn Biden’s victory.
Over the past six years, Trump and the Republican Party have normalized the idea that we should view elections as legitimate only when the person we voted for wins. Trump’s return to power has taught the authoritarians of the world that attacks on the legitimacy of democracy can work — if it does not preserve the power of the office, it at least undermines the power of their opponent and provides a foundation for a return.
From Brazil to Israel
Brazil’s defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro steps off a plane after arriving at Opa Locka Executive Airport in Miami on October 28, 2026. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo / AFP via Getty Images)
On Oct. 25, Brazilians went to the polls for the second round of their presidential election. By Brazilian law, if no single candidate receives a majority of the vote, the top two candidates proceed to a run-off election. In round one, right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently in prison for attempting a coup after his own presidential bid failed in 2022 — finished in first with 47% of the vote, followed closely by left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with 45%.
In round two, Lula flipped the vote, winning 51.8% of the runoff to Bolsonaro’s 48.2%. Rather than accept the results, Bolsonaro claimed election fraud, first calling himself “the true president-elect” before editing the wording to “the leader of Brazil” in a social media post. However, he also fled the country, having been granted asylum in the U.S. with Trump echoing the claims of a rigged election.
A few days later, Israel went to the polls to vote in parliamentary elections with Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership hanging in the balance. In Israel, the prime minister is not voted on directly but is the leader of the party or coalition of parties that comprise the majority of the 120-seat legislative body called the Knesset. In 2022, Netanyahu’s Likud party won the most seats outright and negotiated a coalition with other religious and far-right parties to secure his premiership.
On Oct. 27, Israel’s parliamentary election ended with Likud winning only 27 seats and his larger coalition winning only 53. The opposition coalition holds 48 seats, while Arab Israeli parties hold the other 19. While this was ostensibly a win for Netanyahu — who still holds a path to power — it was not enough. Netanyahu and his party attacked Arab Israeli citizens, claiming the elections were stolen by “Arab parties that support terrorism” and that “Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections.”
Trump weighed in here as well, claiming his support of Netanyahu kept him from defeat and that the U.S. would be looking at how to keep him in power.
“The claim of a rigged election holds power.”
No actual evidence of fraud has been found. Not in Brazil. Not in Israel. But Bolsonaro and Netanyahu know there also was no evidence of fraud in the U.S. — and yet Trump now wields more power than ever. The claim of a rigged election holds power. It undermines the authority of democratic institutions and instead hands that power to the authoritarian under the guise of democratic representation.
In a democracy, political leaders derive authority from the people through the ballot box. But election denialism turns that arrangement upside down. The institutions charged with protecting the democratic process become the alleged perpetrators of corruption. Judges, election officials, journalists and civil servants are recast as enemies of the people — a Deep State that’s trying to subvert the will of the majority. The politician who refuses to accept defeat can then present themselves to their supporters as the only person defending democracy.
The leader doesn’t have to offer proof of a stolen election. They need only convince enough people that the institution cannot be trusted. A victory will then confirm the people’s will. They prevailed against corruption. A loss confirms the corruption and fuels the reaction to it. It allows a leader to claim the mantle of popular sovereignty while simultaneously rejecting the actual expressed will of the electorate.
Deus Vult, An Appeal to Heaven, and other flags among the crowds at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Source: Uncivil Religion, The Smithsonian Institution and the University of Alabama)
Back to America
Tomorrow, Americans will go to the polls for midterm elections. Many of you already have. More than 48 million ballots had been cast as of Oct. 30. Harvard University social scientist Gary King forecasts a 94% chance Democrats take control of the House and a 75% chance they take control of the Senate.
And Republicans are spiraling.
Already, Trump and the MAGAverse are preemptively proclaiming voter fraud. In mid-October, the Justice Department sued California and Los Angeles County, seeking to prevent the counting of more than 20,000 mail-in ballots they claimed could be illegitimate. They then sent letters via armed Homeland Security officials to election workers threatening them with criminal prosecution if they processed ballots cast by folks the government considered ineligible.
In Alaska, the administration has gone even further, already suing — at Trump’s personal behest — to prevent certification of the state’s Senate election if the Republican incumbent loses. The claim here is that independent candidate Daniel J. Sullivan is a Democrat plant to deceptively take votes away from Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. Trump has called for both Daniel J. Sullivan and Democratic candidate Mary Peltola to be removed from the ballot and criminally prosecuted.
“If democracy means anything, it must mean that our opponents have the same right to win as we do.”
This is only the beginning. From election night to the weeks after, the claims of voter fraud will continue — whether it’s Talarico in Texas, El-Sayed in Michigan, Jackson in Maine or any other close races. There will be threats. There will be lawsuits. There will be the claim that this American experiment just doesn’t work. There will be the claim that the only legitimate wins are the ones made by the party in power. And all of this further destroys American democracy.
When every defeat becomes evidence of fraud, when every opponent becomes an illegitimate participant, when every non-white voter is suspected of voting illegally, then every election becomes an opportunity to undermine public trust and democracy begins to lose its grip on the social contract that makes it possible.
If democracy means anything, it must mean that our opponents have the same right to win as we do — and that when they do, we accept the result. Otherwise, we aren’t defending democracy. We’re only defending our own side’s right to rule.
What’s to come
Bolsonaro’s claims of election fraud led to him fleeing the country, with even conservative media mocking him. Netanyahu’s claims were rejected by election authorities and it remains unclear if he will continue in power. So what of Trump and America?
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump told his supporters: “Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people. … We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
But the fight for democracy should not be a fight over who wins the next election. It’s a fight over whether or not we can freely choose our leaders at all. Trump may have failed to overturn the 2020 election, but he has succeeded it making many Americans question if democracy is worth defending if it doesn’t deliver the outcome they want.
Brazilians rejected their would-be authoritarian. Israelis delivered theirs a hefty blow. As America lines up at the polls on Nov. 3, what will we say to ours?
Josh Olds
Josh Olds is a public theologian and pastor for those disillusioned with institutional church. He is the creator of the small-group video series “Year on the Mountaintop” and a featured contributor to Fostering Hope: A Prayerbook for Fostering and Adoptive Parents. Follow his work on Facebook or at JoshOlds.com.
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