Everyone Knows Elections Are Rigged

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In June of 2026, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked by CNN what evidence there is to prove election fraud in California:

JOHNSON: It stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that. Let’s remove the appearance of impropriety.

CNN: But what evidence is there to prove that the election was rigged?

JOHNSON: Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here, and that’s a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system.

Johnson went on to tout a voter ID law. But no allegedly anti-fraud legislation will solve the problem of eroding trust in our elections, because the cause of the distrust isn’t fraud. Fraud is incredibly rare in US elections. The distrust is caused by people like Mike Johnson spreading the lie that our elections are rife with cheating.

(But only when a Republican loses, of course.)

Johnson’s cavalier dismissal of the need for evidence is typical of powerful Republicans arguing for anti-voting laws. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, argued for the voter suppression “SAVE Act” by saying “The American people no longer have confidence in our elections. You can debate whether that’s justified or not, but it’s just a natural fact.”

The lack of confidence in elections isn’t a “natural fact” — it’s been carefully manufactured by Kennedy, Johnson, and other Republicans (Trump most of all). But what’s fascinating is how blithely Kennedy dismisses the question of whether the belief in rigged elections is actually justified.

A 2021 study in The Journal of Experimental Political Science examined the effects of “unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.”

Our study provides new evidence demonstrating the corrosive effect of fraud claims like these on trust in the election system. Using a nationwide survey experiment conducted after the 2018 midterm elections – a time when many prominent Republicans also made unsubstantiated fraud claims – we show that exposure to claims of voter fraud reduces confidence in electoral integrity, though not support for democracy itself. The effects are concentrated among Republicans and Trump approvers. Worryingly, corrective messages from mainstream sources do not measurably reduce the damage these accusations inflict.

Philip Bump, writing in The Washington Post, came to similar conclusions:

The question, then, is why 6 in 10 Republicans think fraud is a major problem. Where does this objectively false belief originate? The answer is not hard to establish: Republican leaders have spent decades claiming that fraud is rampant, setting the framework for Trump to dramatically scale those claims upward after his 2020 loss. […] The result? A Republican electorate that fervently believes that illegal voting is a huge problem — and that democracy itself is failing.

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I always like Frank Young’s colors, but I think his colors for this strip are particularly nice. I especially like his choice to make panel one a nighttime scene.

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Drawing this one was a lot of work (because of the unusually perspective-heavy-for-me backgrounds in the first two panels, and because of all the chicken fat), but it was fun.

Panel one’s background is a simplified drawing of the convenience store next door to Refuge Coffeehouse, the cozy and friendly place where I draw my cartoons. Even with internet, occasionally the easiest way to find a visual reference is to get up and walk thirty feet.

In panel two, I initially drew the Republican dude shaking a closed fist, but Jenn Lee and Becky Hawkins, who were with me at Refuge that day, looked at my pencils and claimed that the fist-pumping resembled a gesture with different implications than what I was shooting for.

I still have no idea what they were on about.

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Thanks so much, as always, for supporting these cartoons! I’m constantly amazed at my good fortune that y’all exist.

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

On a city sidewalk, a balding man in a shirt and tie is talking insistently to a purple-haired passerby with glasses and tattoos.

MAN: Hey, pal, guess what? They’re letting millions of illegals into the country to vote for Democrats!

PANEL 2

In a kitchen, the same man has stuck his head and shoulders through a window into the kitchen, shaking a finger emphatically as he lectures a startled woman.

MAN: The Democrats’ dirty vote machine is so diabolical it’s impossible to “prove,” but everybody knows it stinks!

PANEL 3

In a park, the same man has grabbed another person by the shoulder and is shouting in their face.

MAN: Never mind “proof.” Your elections are stolen! It’s all rigged! Democracy is dead!!

PANEL 4

Close-up of a hand holding a phone. On the screen, the same man—now smiling and calm—is speaking on Fox News.

MAN: Of course there’s proof elections are crooked! Because if they aren’t, why do so many Americans think they are?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Panel 1: Graffiti on the wall says: “I have tagged this wall, and therefore I have become immortal”; “20 percent is the new 15 percent”; “Pore Jud is Daid”; “BG”; “BG yes again”; and “The Vanishing Point is the God of Us All.” Also on the wall, a purple cartoon bunny, labeled “Evil Bunny,” is surrounded by flying knives.

In the store window, ad posters include a cigarette brand called “DIE,” a cupcake with a happy worm crawling out of it, Beaker from the Muppets, and a column of comic-book sound effects: “Bim Bam Boom Boot Toot.”

A newspaper on the sidewalk is called the Background Tribune. The headline reads “Crucial Headline In Left Corner Cropped Off. Thousands of Deaths Blamed on a Cartoonist’s Laziness. ‘Whoops’ says the jerk.” The headline on the lower left is cut off by the panel border, but in my mind it was “Whomp Whomp.”

A bottle lying in the gutter is labeled “Hootch Juice.”

Panel 2: A cereal box is labeled, “Your Childhood Cereal You Keep Eating Even Though It’s Bad,” and promises the “Same Awful Taste!” On the side of the cereal box, it says “100% 90%” and then in small letters “are both numbers.”

In a coffee mug on the counter, a mouse wearing a purple hat sits thoughtfully.

On a shelf, cookbooks include Cook Book, Schnook Book, You Can Cook! and Just Kidding, You’re Awful! There’s also a glaring bald head with a cigar.

Panel 3: A notice nailed to a tree reads: “NOTICE: People who read tiny background text will be sent to bed with no supper. —Your Mom.” Nearby, the Evil Bunny from panel one is partly emerging from a hole in the ground, smoking a joint and holding a teddy bear. Woodstock from “Peanuts” is sitting on a tree branch.

Panel 4: The Fox News logo says “Nox Fews.” The news crawl says “Muffin Man: ‘No one knows the real me’” and “Single best celebrity dies. ‘Whoopsies’ says God.” (I wrote that one the day Dolly passed away.) Thumbnails for other stories are headlined “Global Warming: FAKE” and “If global warming isn’t fake then it’s GOOD NEWS!” with a picture of a smiling sun wearing sunglasses and enjoying the beach.

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Everyone Knows Elections Are Rigged | Barry Deutsch on Patreon