UB Law School Professor Says Beware of Common Misconceptions About the American Election Process

BUFFALO, N.Y. – University at Buffalo Law School Professor James A. Gardner today cautioned against giving too much importance to charges of voter fraud in American elections and supposed incompetence in administering elections. The process in the overwhelming majority of elections, he says, is working well.

"We have to be careful about political propaganda being spread about how voter fraud, and to a lesser extent incompetence in the administration of elections, threatens democracy," says Gardner, an authority on election and constitutional law, and the UB Law School's vice dean for academic affairs.

"This simply is not true," says Gardner. "There are more than 500,000 elected officials in the U.S. Virtually every one of these elections comes off without a hitch. The news media have a tendency to focus exclusively on the extremely rare but dramatic cases in which the outcome of a very close race is put in doubt by a very small number of possibly tainted ballots or a malfunction of voting technology or human error in the administration of elections.

"These are very rare exceptions to the rule."

Gardner says another common false impression is that elections in the U.S. are always close, and that the smallest errors or the occasional fraudulent ballot among thousands have the potential to destroy democratic self-government.

"That's not the case," says Gardner. "In fact, the overwhelming majority of elections in the U.S. are so lopsided that no amount of error or fraud could change the result, and many, many elections are completely uncontested. Uncontested and lopsided elections may be a sign of something wrong with the system, but it has nothing to do with the administration of elections."

Gardner, who is the Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice and who has been frequently quoted by local and national media on election issuessaid election law and procedure still merit close scrutiny. For example, a recent Supreme Court decision upholding voter ID requirements in Indiana provides legal support for the aggressive use of anti-fraud measures, even though voter fraud was "essentially a non-existent problem."

"This raises the specter, as it did during the last election cycle," Gardner says, "of Republicans invoking anti-fraud measures improperly to suppress legitimate voting, often by the elderly, blacks, the poor and other groups that might have a tendency to lean Democratic."

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

Since its founding in 1887, the University at Buffalo Law School -- the State University of New York system's only law school -- has established an excellent reputation and is widely regarded as a leader in legal education. Its cutting-edge curriculum provides both a strong theoretical foundation and the practical tools graduates need to succeed in a competitive marketplace, wherever they choose to practice. A special emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, public service and opportunities for hands-on clinical education makes UB Law unique among the nation's premier public law schools.