20 Political scientists have observed a “winner effect” among those on the winning side of an election, in which the positive influence of being on the winning side increases trust, perceptions of fairness, and consent to the outcome of an election. In turn, there appear to be negative effects on attitudes about government among citizens on the losing side, which cause concern about the effects of elections on system legitimacy, though it is not clear that those attitudes endure. Betsy Sinclair, Steven S. Smith, and Patrick D. Tucker, “‘It’s Largely a Rigged System’: Voter Confidence and the Winner Effect in 2016,” Political Research Quarterly 71, no. 4 (April 21, 2018): 854–868, https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918768006.
21 Stephen Collinson, “Why Trump’s Talk of a Rigged Vote Is So Dangerous,” CNN Politics, October 19, 2016, https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/donald-trump-rigged-election/index.html.
22 Jessica Taylor, “Clinton Says She Was ‘Right’ About ‘Vast Russia Conspiracy’; Investigations Ongoing,” NPR, June 1, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/06/01/530941011/clinton-says-she-was-right-about-vast-russia-conspiracy-investigations-ongoing.
23 According to Attorney General William Barr’s summary of Robert Mueller’s investigation, they “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” Regarding obstruction of justice, the report laid out evidence on both sides without drawing a conclusion, leaving Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to conclude, “The evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.” Trump reacted to this news by declaring on Twitter on March 24, 2019, “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!,” https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1109918388133023744. Mueller refuted this a few months later in testimony before Congress, saying his investigation did not assess “‘collusion,’ which is not a legal term” and that Trump “was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed.” Mueller clarified that the investigation “focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy. It was not.” “Full Transcript: Mueller Testimony Before House Judiciary, Intelligence Committees,” NBC News, July 25, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/full-transcript-robert-mueller-house-committee-testimony-n1033216.
24 “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election: Report,” US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, November 10, 2020, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/publications/report-select-committee-intelligence-united-states-senate-russian-active-measures.
25 Chris Kahn, “Despite Report Findings, Almost Half of Americans Think Trump Colluded with Russia,” Reuters, March 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-poll/despite-report-findings-almost-half-of-americans-think-trump-colluded-with-russia-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKCN1R72S0.
26 A survey of evolving election integrity policies ahead of the 2020 election can be found in Chapter 6 of the Election Integrity Partnership final report: “The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election,” Stanford Digital Repository, March 3, 2021, https://purl.stanford.edu/tr171zs0069.
27 Tessa Lyons, “The Three-Part Recipe for Cleaning up Your News Feed,” Meta, May 22, 2018, https://about.fb.com/news/2018/05/inside-feed-reduce-remove-inform.
28 Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac, “Inside Facebook’s Election ‘War Room.’” New York Times, September 19, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/technology/facebook-election-war-room.html.
29 For example, two right-wing figures, Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, were charged in 2020 with telecommunications fraud and intimidating voters after they made tens of thousands of robocalls to minority areas in the Midwest. The calls falsely claimed that if citizens voted by mail, their information would be used for mandatory vaccination programs and given to law enforcement and collection agencies. Christine Hauser, “Two Right-Wing Operatives Plead Guilty in 2020 Robocall Scheme,” New York Times, October 25, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/25/us/politics/ohio-robocalls-wohl-burkman-guilty.html.
30 For more on “bot armies,” see Samuel C. Woolley and Philip N. Howard, eds., Computational Propaganda: Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
31 “Social Media Influencer Douglass Mackey Convicted of Election Interference in 2016 Presidential Race,” US Department of Justice, March 31, 2023, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/social-media-influencer-douglass-mackey-convicted-election-interference-2016.
