The integrity of the 2016 US Presidential Election: Exploring the possible impact of ideology on experts’ judgments

Abstract

Using new comparative expert data about the 2016 US Presidential Election, this article explores the effects of experts’ ideological preferences on their evaluations of electoral integrity. Without contesting the claim that the 2016 election faced challenges of integrity, our analyses reveal a substantial association between negative evaluation of election integrity and experts’ ideological orientation. Our results also suggest that this ideological effect is stronger in States that ‘swung’ from Democratic to Republican in the 2016 election.