Chris Tenove is also worried about discontent among disappointed voters. He’s the assistant director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at UBC, and he’s tracking a rise in allegations of election fraud in Canada. In partnership with the Canadian Digital Media Research Network at McGill University, he’s created a real-time social media monitoring system to track what Canadians say online about the possibility of a stolen election.
The vast majority of Canadians have faith in our voting system, but there’s a growing group that harbours suspicion, made up of people who already distrust government institutions. Tenove’s research shows that narratives of election manipulation are on the rise in Canada–particularly among Conservative voters. In a story for Maclean’s, Tenove gives a warning: “In an information system this dysfunctional, the public can come to distrust even the fairest of elections.”
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—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s
