Trump’s Warnings About a ‘Rigged’ U.S. Election: QuickTake Q&A

Donald Trump, a man who prizes winning above all, shows no interest in being an agreeable loser, should it come to that. The Republican U.S. presidential nominee complains about a "rigged" system favoring Democrat Hillary Clinton and says he will lose in Pennsylvania, a battleground state, only "if cheating goes on." He declined to say, during the final presidential debate, whether he’ll honor the results of the Nov. 8 election if he’s not declared the victor. (He later said he "would accept a clear election result" but might challenge "a questionable result.") Though the U.S. supplies advisers and observers to monitor democratic elections around the globe, Trump is far from the first politician to question the integrity and fairness of America’s own voting. He may, however, be the first presidential candidate to suggest before Election Day that the results would be dishonest.

His answer has changed over time. Most recently he’s said that the election "is being rigged by corrupt media pushing false allegations and outright lies," and that the U.S. is "in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system." For months he’s been urging his supporters in Pennsylvania and other states to monitor polling stations to "make sure other people don’t come in and vote five times." Clinton’s significant lead in polls of Pennsylvania voters has done nothing to squelch talks of a fixed election, since Trump and many of his supporters suggest that pre-election polls, too, are rigged against him.