I think a scam like that would require California to report more democratic votes than the total voting population of California, in order for California's popular vote to swamp the rest of the country's.
Nevertheless, that is one way the system could be theoretically circumvented. No matter what system humans come up with, the sociopathic/psychopathic elements of humanity will figure out a way to game it eventually.
Tardigrade: For example, in 2016, if you add up all 49 states other than California, Trump wins the so-called popular vote. The California vote, skewing heavily Democratic, outweighed the Republican lean of the rest of the country.
Actually, even counting California, Trump would probably have won the popular vote anyway, but for millions of Republicans voting for two Republican Governors on the Libertarian Party ticket. (That’s what I was planning to do, myself, but I was working and didn’t get to the polls.)
In-person voting is harder to fix. A Democratic operative may visit a few dozen polling places in a day — “early voting” helps! — but it’s time-consuming, and he can’t visit the same polling place too often, or he’ll be recognized by Republican poll workers.
But mail ballots! For example, an election worker signed an affidavit that she saw a stack of about a thousand, never-folded (!) mail ballots, presumably photocopied. As I recall, Biden was filled in exactly the same way on all of them.
When a mail ballot arrives: Who filled it out? You don’t know. Was anybody watching (coerciing) the voter? You don’t know. Is that the ballot originally placed in the envelope? You don’t know. Is that the authorized voter’s squiggle on the envelope? You probably don’t know.
Not surprisingly, mail ballots are illegal in most countries, due to the likelihood of fraud.
I think a scam like that would require California to report more democratic votes than the total voting population of California, in order for California's popular vote to swamp the rest of the country's.
Nevertheless, that is one way the system could be theoretically circumvented. No matter what system humans come up with, the sociopathic/psychopathic elements of humanity will figure out a way to game it eventually.
Tardigrade: For example, in 2016, if you add up all 49 states other than California, Trump wins the so-called popular vote. The California vote, skewing heavily Democratic, outweighed the Republican lean of the rest of the country.
Actually, even counting California, Trump would probably have won the popular vote anyway, but for millions of Republicans voting for two Republican Governors on the Libertarian Party ticket. (That’s what I was planning to do, myself, but I was working and didn’t get to the polls.)
In-person voting is harder to fix. A Democratic operative may visit a few dozen polling places in a day — “early voting” helps! — but it’s time-consuming, and he can’t visit the same polling place too often, or he’ll be recognized by Republican poll workers.
But mail ballots! For example, an election worker signed an affidavit that she saw a stack of about a thousand, never-folded (!) mail ballots, presumably photocopied. As I recall, Biden was filled in exactly the same way on all of them.
When a mail ballot arrives: Who filled it out? You don’t know. Was anybody watching (coerciing) the voter? You don’t know. Is that the ballot originally placed in the envelope? You don’t know. Is that the authorized voter’s squiggle on the envelope? You probably don’t know.
Not surprisingly, mail ballots are illegal in most countries, due to the likelihood of fraud.