The line cut through UC Berkeley’s campus before finally pooling into the Public Service Center, where volunteers handed out pizza and stickers to students voting in the 2024 presidential election. Before their turn in the booth, every student in line already knew the result of their vote: California and its 54 electoral college points are practically predestined for the Democratic candidate. In a state where the outcome seems predictable before the first vote is even officially cast, thousands of students still spend hours in line to vote because of a basic belief in American civil duty. Even if drowned by the statistics, the simple act of voting in the United States means something to people. But what happens when the sanctity of voting is tainted?
Prior to 2000, elections in America were largely uncontested, with the chosen flavor of historical election manipulation being voter suppression instead. Then, the infamous 2000 presidential election happened. Bush, Gore, Florida, and the Supreme Court engaged in a month-long scramble over the state’s ballots after an initial margin of just around one thousand votes. Wave after wave of recounts and legal disputes finally ended when the Supreme Court ruled in Bush’s favor, settling the issue. However, the damage was already done. Right before the court decision, 33 percent of polled Americans believed that if Bush won the presidency, it was not through legitimate means but rather the manner in which the votes were counted.
Then came 2020. As the swing states began flipping for Biden in the week following election day, allegations of voter fraud and election rigging of all kinds came flying from Trump’s camp. One component of this movement was the allegation that Dominion Voting Systems, a private voting machine company, helped rig the election in favor of Biden. This allegation was broadcast by multiple Trump adjacent figures on Fox News, leading to the infamous defamation suit by Dominion, resulting in Fox News agreeing to pay a landmark $800 million settlement.Multiple lawsuits, a call to the Georgia secretary of state, and an insurrection later, Trump begrudgingly conceded the election to Biden. A survey released immediately after this concession highlights that 75 percent of Trump voters believed that he rightfully won the election. More recently, a 2023 poll indicated that 69 percent of Republican voters still had doubts about Biden’s 2020 victory.
Protester holds a “STOP the STEAL” sign in front of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 | Image Source: Getty Images
Despite the differing circumstances, both cases demonstrate that Americans are extremely sensitive to any semblance of impropriety in elections. This distrust is rarely quelled with legal rulings and concessions and hangs in the air even as the election results are certified.
Was the 2020 election actually stolen? The answer is no. Fox News was proven to have knowingly broadcast defamatory allegations of election fraud about Dominion. Critical analysis of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s database of alleged voter fraud only yields 85 cases of noncitizen voting between 2002 and 2023. The Brookings Institute only found 0.000051 percent of mail in votes from the 2020 election to be connected to voter fraud, equivalent to four fraudulent votes in every one million cast.
The mounting issue is that people believe elections are being stolen.
Nearly four years after the Fox News defamation suit where Dominion stood strong against any allegations of impropriety, the company was acquired this October by Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican St. Louis election director. In a press release, Leiendecker announced that “As of today, Dominion is gone… We are turning the page and beginning the vital work of restoring faith in American elections.” Now renamed to Liberty Vote, Leiendecker declared that the company is “… a 100 percent American‐owned election technology company,” which could be viewed as a response to the original claims that the Venezuelan government was connected to Dominion. Liberty Vote’s stated mission of “paper-based transparency” also aligns with common Trump talking points propping up paper ballots to combat alleged electronic voting based fraud.
Given this information, it is unsurprising that many, including election officials, believe this to be another example of institutional capitulation to Trump. This serves as a stinging case given Dominion’s previous strong stand and victory against Trumpian misinformation in an attempt to erode election trust. Given the recent nature of the acquisition, it is unknown whether or not Liberty Vote will work to serve Trump’s interests instead of the interests of a fair election. Company representatives reassured election officials in Georgia following the acquisition that the company would remain the same, just under a different name. However, the damage has already been done. Even if Liberty Vote continues as a strictly non-partisan voting machine vendor, the suspicion of impropriety and political bias hangs in the air.
Following Trump’s victory in 2024, election confidence among Trump voters shot up, from only 21 percent agreeing that the elections were “run well” in 2020 up to 93 percent in 2024. While an upwards trend is positive, the troubling reality is that election trust now lies with a favorable outcome. The uncomfortable question remains: would Trump voters still be so confident in the integrity of this election if he had lost? Trump’s campaign of slander and misinformation, designed so he could hold onto power in 2020, may have failed in its ultimate goal, but was successful in sowing doubt in election integrity. His tirade against Dominion Voting Systems, for example, created a new ping-pong game of election trust between the political divide. Dominion’s strong stance following Trump’s 2020 election accusations was deemed untrustworthy and biased by Republicans. In response, Dominion’s acquisition and Trump-friendly signalling in 2025 allowed Democrats and those on the left to easily deem them untrustworthy and biased as well. Trust in the actual election process has now completely eroded.
Some states are implementing legislation to supposedly crack down on voter fraud. Texas passed an amendment to the state constitution stating that only US citizens may vote in elections. This, obviously, is already the federal law. These policies are the equivalent of TSA security theater, merely meant to appease a particularly paranoid portion of the voting base. However, these policies serve to legitimize false claims of voter fraud, further perpetuating misinformation and distrust. One such act of security theater is Liberty Vote’s emphasis on prioritizing and pushing paper ballots when the majority of votes are already cast on paper ballots. In fact, one of Dominion System’s most popular voting machines used widely across Georgia, New York, and Michigan is the ImageCast Precinct, a paper ballot scanner.
A sample ballot being fed into a Dominion Image Precinct voting machines | Image Source: David Swanson
The discussion around voting security serves as a microcosm of the ill health of American democracy: bad actors sow inflammatory misinformation, public trust is on the decline, and there remains no clear path forward. The people grow increasingly polarized yet cynical about politics. The power of voting rests on the belief in the results, just as the strength of democracy lies with people’s belief in it.
After Liberty Vote’s acquisition of Dominion, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber released a FAQ statement. Questions included “How can we be sure the company’s new ownership won’t affect election security or neutrality?” and “What if we start receiving misinformation or media inquiries about this change?” Weber reaffirms to the people of California that there is no suspicion of impropriety and that Liberty Vote’s systems remain certified and unaffected by the acquisition. However, the very need for such a statement by the Secretary of State less than two weeks after Dominion’s acquisition speaks to the rising anxiety the public has towards political interference in the election process.
Voting rights in America are written in blood. Measures like literacy tests and poll taxes are within living memory. On the eve of UC Berkeley’s founding in 1868, only 15 percent of the modern-day on-campus voting line, non-Hispanic white men, would have the right to vote. It is only natural that good, civically minded citizens hold their vote and the system through which this vote goes through with high regard and scrutiny. However, bad actors take advantage of this scrutiny and taint it with baseless accusations and misinformation, and they will continue to do so as long as it remains politically advantageous and unstoppable. The very foundations of American democracy erode in response. Therefore, if the United States wants its citizens to continue engaging in democracy through voting, it must do better to maintain good faith and electoral trust.
Featured Image Source: John Spink