Election Conspiracies Are Moving From Rhetoric to Government Action

Attacks on the legitimacy of U.S. elections are no longer confined to conspiracy theories circulating online—they are increasingly shaping government action at the local level. In Riverside County, Calif., Sheriff Chad Bianco seized roughly 650,000 ballots from a 2025 special election based on fraud allegations that election officials say stem from misleading interpretations of preliminary voting data. Courts have since intervened, with the California Supreme Court ordering the investigation paused while litigation continues. I spoke with Jill Garvey, co-director of States at the Core, about what these escalating “election integrity” efforts mean for democracy and public trust. Garvey says many of the activists driving these claims understand election systems far better than they let on—and are intentionally using confusion around technical election data to sow distrust in the voting process. Even when election officials fully explain the data and publicly refute the allegations, she said, demands for investigations continue, helping fuel a broader narrative that elections cannot be trusted. Garvey sees these efforts as part of a larger strategy testing how far local officials can go in challenging election systems and democratic norms. But she also points to growing community-level organizing and civic engagement in response. The groups advancing these claims, she noted, are relatively small compared to the hundreds of thousands of voters affected by their actions—a reminder that local communities still have significant power to push back against efforts to undermine confidence in elections. The post Election Conspiracies Are Moving From Rhetoric to Government Action appeared first on Ms. Magazine.