(Possibly before that but I wasn’t alive then.) Nobody alleged cheating.
There were definitely allegations of cheating when JFK won in 1960 over Nixon.
It happens with every close election. In effect, it's a nonpartisan issue.
The reason Bush, Dole, McCain, and Romney didn't complain is that they all lost by a significant margin. There was no basis for complaint.
In recent decades, Republicans have won most of the close elections. That's why Democrats have been the sore losers. Trump is the first Republican in recent times to lose a close election.
(Trump is unique in complaining about voter fraud even when he won in 2016, because he wanted people to believe that he got the popular vote too, not just the electoral college. Which shows, by the way, that the popular vote does matter. Trump also alleged that Obama wasn't a native born American, so he was trying to undermine elections that he wasn't even running in.)
My takeaway is that close elections inherently tend to undermine the legitimacy of democracy. And maybe they should, because it's pretty crazy to have huge differences in policy determined by very small margins.
Comments
There were definitely allegations of cheating when JFK won in 1960 over Nixon.
It happens with every close election. In effect, it's a nonpartisan issue.
The reason Bush, Dole, McCain, and Romney didn't complain is that they all lost by a significant margin. There was no basis for complaint.
In recent decades, Republicans have won most of the close elections. That's why Democrats have been the sore losers. Trump is the first Republican in recent times to lose a close election.
(Trump is unique in complaining about voter fraud even when he won in 2016, because he wanted people to believe that he got the popular vote too, not just the electoral college. Which shows, by the way, that the popular vote does matter. Trump also alleged that Obama wasn't a native born American, so he was trying to undermine elections that he wasn't even running in.)
My takeaway is that close elections inherently tend to undermine the legitimacy of democracy. And maybe they should, because it's pretty crazy to have huge differences in policy determined by very small margins.