Can the Elections Really Be Rigged?

Election Day is just 22 days away. There is talk about fraud coming from candidates and voters. As the weeks dwindle down to Election Day, it can bring a lot of emotions. The recent talks about the elections being rigged is what many people are asking. However, Bonneville County Elections Clerk Jenny manning said it is not as easy as you think to rig an election. She does not want anyone to be discouraged from voting. “It is very secure. Every ballot is accounted for. Our voting system is not on the Internet. So, when we start counting ballots, it’s not like anybody can hack into the system or anything like that,” Elections Clerk Penny Manning said. Elections Clerk Manning said election officials go through explicit instructions and very tedious at that. This involves going through each and every ballot, whether it is through mail, early voting ballots or ballots at the polling place to prevent voter fraud. “The ballot count is gone over and over and over again. We track both the voted ballots. The number of people compared to the number of ballots. So, it’s an extreme accounting job that we do just to make sure that it’s done correctly and that there aren’t any problems,” Elections County Clerk Manning said. We spoke with some voters on what they think about the talk about a “rigged” election. Many think it is partially due to having a big ego. “A candidate who may campaign on, ‘Oh, the election is rigged.’ To me that sounds, well, if they don’t win it, they want to just have some excuse as to why they didn’t win.So, you need proof, in order to say that, in which case it should be presented to the legal authorities and prosecuted. Just do say it for political purposes,” Voter Raymond Wayne said. However, Wayne said that in the case the elections are “rigged”, there is one thing everyone should have in order to avoid it. “I think there should be some sort of photo ID to check to be sure that people don’t vote twice or vote in the wrong place if there’s a different district line,” Wayne said. In the state of Idaho, you do have to have a photo ID in order to vote on Election Day. The same goes for the state of Wyoming prior to Election Day, but on the day of, you do not need to show a photo ID. Important Elections Dates: Friday, October 28 – Last day for mail-in absentee ballot in Idaho. Friday, November 4 – Last day for in-person absentee voting and early voting. Election Day – Last day to return absentee ballots to county clerk. Most voting polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.