For many Canadians, this election feels like an existential moment. Depending on your point of view, you might think Canada is genuinely threatened by Trump’s annexation talk, and Mark Carney is the only person equipped to protect the nation. Others might believe that re-electing the Liberals after 10 years will send the country into a downward spiral. With the stakes this high, anxieties about the election process itself can grow. On Monday, when the majority of voting Canadians head to the polls to elect our next government, I worry that fears of a stolen election will surge.

I live in Vancouver, and that’s exactly what happened during British Columbia’s provincial election last fall. On October 19, the final day of voting, British Columbians had no idea whether David Eby’s NDP would stay in government or if the province would take a sharp right turn under John Rustad’s Conservative Party.

That morning, as the polls opened, heavy rains swept the Lower Mainland. Rumours of election manipulation swirled online. Some social media accounts alleged that the NDP government had engaged in “cloud-seeding,” a rain-inducing weather modification technique, in order to depress voter turnout. Other accounts claimed that “voting machines” would undercount Conservative votes.

When polls closed, the initial results were too close to call. Conspiracists began to allege that the election had been stolen. Then, in early November, Elections BC revealed that it had accidentally failed to count a box with several hundred ballots, sparking legitimate concerns as well as half-baked conspiracies. The error was soon rectified: all ballots were tallied, and there were judicial recounts in the three closest ridings. In the end, the NDP stayed in power. However, distrust persisted online.

The narratives we saw during the B.C. election echoed trends in the U.S. In 2020, many Republicans came to believe that voting machines helped the Democrats “steal” the election, while conspiracists alleged that, in the lead-up to America’s November 2024 election, the Biden administration had directed hurricanes to hit red districts. Rampant claims of stolen elections have contributed to a........

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