It’s the type of conspiracy theory that experts
fear will dog this year’s presidential race until
Election Day.
“Democracy depends on the losers accepting
election results,” said University of California,
Irvine, professor Richard Hasen, whose book
“Election Meltdown” was published Tuesday in
what he said was an ominous coincidence. “Now
we’re starting off the election season with seeds
of doubt, which is terrible.”
In recent months, social media users have
promoted conspiracy theories around the
legitimacy of election results around the
country, from a gubernatorial race in Kentucky
to statehouse races in Virginia.
The tweets Monday began spreading minutes
after the Iowa Democratic Party announced
it was reviewing results for “quality control.”
The app used by the Iowa Democratic Party to
collect results Monday experienced technical
glitches that left the caucus results in limbo
through Tuesday.
“Quality control = rigged?” Trump campaign
manager Brad Parscale said in a tweet that
has since been shared and liked more than
20,000 times.
As the delay of final results continued into
Tuesday, social media users spread theories of
complex schemes that were deployed to keep
the results hidden in order undermine certain
Democratic candidates such as Sen. Bernie
Sanders. Many of the tweets suggested the
Democratic Party or the Democratic National
Convention intentionally bungled the caucus
results, even though the Iowa Democratic Party
administered Monday’s caucus.