# 9. Strategic voting ## 9.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 9.5.5. Strategic Vote Fraud Vote fraud on a large scale is easy to detect and hard to cover up. However, vote fraud can be effective on a small scale where the fraud is strategically executed and where its effect is disproportionately effective to the small scale of the fraud. A small voting fraud, like small scale ballot stuffing or buying the votes of ambivalent voters is quite hard to detect in a large scale election. But by targeting key swing constituencies where the fraud is unlikely to be noticed, a vote fraud can be very effective and low risk. It is particularly effective where margins are extremely tight. **Strategic fraud example:** The election of George W. Bush as president of the U.S.A. in 2000 hung in the balance for 36 days because of the voting returns from the state of Florida, where Bush's brother was governor. Because the margin was so very tight, a recount was called. As a result of this, a large number of voting irregularities emerged which disqualified many voters. Despite legal attempts by Bush to stop the recounts, the manual recounts continued. On December 8, Florida's high court upheld the manual recount. However, the next day, Bush successfully appealed for a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the recount. Bush's team argued that the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection for all citizens disqualified a manual recount because Florida's counties had followed differing vote-counting procedures. The Gore team demanded that every vote be counted. On December 12, the Republican dominated U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 vote, stopped the Florida recount. Though Gore received more popular votes than Bush, he conceded the next day. This was a case where strategic vote fraud took place at the count, with the collusion of the US Supreme Court. And the rest, as they say, is history.