No, Donald Trump, the election isn’t rigged

We’ve already run through most of the key economic points in Donald Trump’s big speech today. Here’s one more, on a different topic:

“Our party has chosen to make new history by selecting a nominee from the outside — that’s outside of the very, very, already-proven, rigged system,” he said, near the end.

Trump used that word, “rigged,” to talk about electoral process today, but he’s also used it in reference to the economy. Both sentiments are shared by a not-insignificant part of the electorate, according to our research and Pew, respectively.

Without putting too fine a point on it, there is no substantive voter fraud in this country. A study cited in the Washington Post found 31 incidents out of a billion votes from 2000 to 2014.

To take it one logical step further, unfounded allegations that a national election is rigged are corrosive at best.