Once again, you confuse cheating with fraud. These are related but distinct concepts.
Under the law, cheating and fraud are two different things, where cheating is thought of as breaking rules or being dishonest to gain unfair advantages.
Some might call election "dirty tricks" cheating, like spreading false information or smearing opponents, but could be just lying to manipulate votes or voter intimidation and manipulating election rules. This would include "unauthorized access to polling stations", misleading voters, making false misrepresentations.
Fraud involves things like hacking into election systems, false registration to vote, buying or selling votes, etc.
Fraud requires proof of breaking a law, intentionally. It is exceptionally difficult to prove and hence becomes a great tool in certain circumstances, because an individual fraud often goes to state of mind, which is exceedingly difficult to prove.
Cheating is a lesser standard, a common-sense standard, based on fairness and equity. So, when Mark Zuckerberg and David Plouffe worked out a scheme under which 426 Million dollars could be used to effective "buy" votes in selected areas was worked out, it wasn't technically illegal, but it was clearly wrong. Zuckerberg himself has all but admitted it was wrong by refusing to participate again, and the states decided it was significant enough to make it illegal by enacting laws.
I go by what I'd try to teach my kids. Would you want yours believing what Zuckerberg did was acceptable? |
