Do you ever look at politicians and maybe wonder if your vote counts? Well, if you do, you aren’t the only one. You are just one of the few who are paying attention.
As the global elections in 2025 unfold, the trust people have in the democratic process is declining. From viral deepfakes in India to the suppression of voters in the U.S., millions of people start to ponder this question: Was democracy always this sketchy?
The simple answer is yes. It has been shady for thousands of years.
If you think modern-day politics is dirty, wait till you hear about ancient Roman senators who were known for handing out free bread and bribes, New York’s Tammany Hall, where they were registering dead people to vote, not once but twice.
This is the real story of elections. A story full of back-room deals, forged ballots, bribes in holy robes, and coups that are often disguised as campaigns
“In our history’s long-running political series called “Who Wants to Be a Leader?,” rigging elections has often been the winning strategy.“
Forget what you’ve seen in textbooks or what you’ve heard during political debates; this is the real story of elections. A story full of back-room deals, forged ballots, bribes in holy robes, and coups that are often disguised as campaigns.
We are talking about popes who bought their position, dictators who lost but emerged as winners, and empires that learned that the best way to stay in power was simply to… You guessed right… rig the game.
So buckle up! We’re about to take a tour through the darker and juicier side of democracy. The side where power always finds a loophole, where the game is often rigged, and where history proves that being fair was never the default setting.
I’ll be your tour guide. Let’s go!
Ancient Rome: Bread, Bribes, and Ballots
The first stop on our tour is Ancient Rome. A place where democracy wore a toga and bribery was basically an Olympic sport.
In the Roman Republic, elections were not really about choice. They were more about who could throw the wildest party and serve the tastiest snacks.
Senators and hopeful politicians were not participating in political debates or reading out manifestos. They were handing out loaves of bread, pouring rivers of wine, and sponsoring bloody gladiator fights just to get votes. And by “votes,” we mostly mean the loyalty of a small club of elite Roman men.
Take Cicero, for example. Rome’s most ambitious gossip columnist-turned-politician offered simple and clear advice to his brother, who was running for office.
“Promise everything, give generously, lie if you must, and make sure the games are spectacular.”
It was a strategic guide for corruption, and it worked.
Candidates bankrupted themselves by bribing voters, then, when elected, they used their new offices to plunder the province and recoup what they had spent.
One particular guy, Appius Claudius Pulcher, went overboard. He threw so many public feasts that the Senate tried to ban camping banquets altogether, but couldn’t.
Rome gave us the toga and the Senate, and also, apparently, the idea that vote-buying is just part of the process.
The Papal Elections: Holy Place, Unholy Schemes
Next up is the Vatican City. So, grab your rosaries because this holy spot has seen some of the least godly elections in history.
“Cardinals are supposed to lock themselves in a room in prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to guide them in choosing the next pope.”
The Vatican City is where the holiest seat on earth was often decided by the dirtiest political tricks imaginable. Papal elections, or conclaves, were once considered sacred. Cardinals are supposed to lock themselves in a room in prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to guide them in choosing the next pope.
Well, that is fiction. In reality, it is more like Game of Thrones, but with robes.
In 1492, there was a man who was so corrupt that he made his own PR people nervous. We are talking about Rodrigo Borgia. He allegedly bought the papacy outright. He became Pope Alexander VI by literally bribing cardinals with land, positions, and substantial sums of money.
The result of that was a papacy filled with illegitimate children, poisonings, and naked parties inside the Vatican. His family became the blueprint for fictional crime dynasties, and Renaissance Italy got itself a pope who ruled more like a mob boss than a holy man.
It turns out that even divine elections can be rigged; you just have to know the right cardinal to pay off.
Tammany Hall: Where Dead Men Voted
Now let’s hop over to 19th-century New York City, where politics met organized crime, and the only thing more inflated than the vote count was Boss Tweed’s ego.
This is where the political machine known as Tammany Hall was running the city like a mafia-run carnival. Tammany Hall wasn’t just a building. It was a beast, a Democratic Party machine that owned elections by mastering every available cheat code. We’re talking about using fake identities, buying votes, stuffing ballots, and, yes, using zombie voters.
They would register immigrants right off the boat, give them a beer, and take them straight to the polling booth. They can make one immigrant vote about two or three times. If the number is not satisfactory enough, they would fill in ballots for people who were, shall we say, no longer with us.
One election reportedly had more votes than the number of residents. In another election, they found one guy who voted 32 times under different names.
Boss Tweed, the Tammany ringleader, once bragged:
“As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?”
Boss Tweed and his minions stole elections with charm, muscle, and a few bottles of whiskey. And as long as they delivered jobs and turkeys on Thanksgiving, the people didn’t complain much.
Latin America: Banana Republics and the “We Win or Else” Strategy
Welcome to the tropics, where we’ll see coups, CIA interference, and elections with all the suspense of a rigged raffle draw game.
In 20th-century Latin America, elections often resembled a theatrical performance. There were usually soldiers watching from every angle.
Let’s look at Nicaragua’s dictator, Anastasio Somoza, who once said: “You won the vote? Great. I count it.”
Yep! That was pretty much the vibe.
In countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, elections were staged to look legit. However, the real power was held by the military or by strongmen who were backed by foreign governments. Candidates disappeared, ballots were filled out before the elections, and results were “finalized” long before voting even started.
“Elections were less about governance and more about putting a nice suit on a dictator.”
Let’s not forget the CIA’s role. In 1954, the CIA helped to overthrow Guatemala’s elected president, Jacobo Árbenz. They did this because he tried to take land from a U.S. fruit company. Apparently, democracy is fine until it messes with the U.S. bananas.
Elections in these regions were less about governance; they were more about putting a nice suit on a dictator.
Kenya 2007: When the Vote Bleeds
Brace yourselves! This part of the journey gets really dark. We are now in Kenya, 2007, where rigging wasn’t just political; it became deadly.
In Kenya’s 2007 elections, things went off the rails fast. After incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was hastily declared the winner, opposition supporters cried fraud. They didn’t agree because the numbers didn’t add up, ballot boxes disappeared, and power “accidentally” went off during the counting process.
In short, the country exploded. Ethnic violence swept across regions. More than 1,000 people died, and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
Eventually, a fragile peace deal was reached, but it was too late. The damage was deep and lasting. Kenya’s 2007 election is a chilling reminder that when you mess with democracy in fragile states, people won’t just get mad, they will get hurt.
USA 2000: Hanging Chads and Legal Intervention
Our next stop is Florida, USA, in the year 2000. It was when democracy fell over ballot papers and into the Supreme Court.
You would think America, with the world’s oldest democracy, would have a clean slate. However, in 2000, the U.S. presidential election nearly brought the entire system to a halt over mere ballot discrepancies.
The Florida recount between George Bush and Al Gore became a national circus. Ballot cards that were punched had things called “chads,” and some of them did not punch through completely. Some of them had hanging chads, some had pregnant chads, and others had dimpled chads. It sounded less like a vote and more like a boy band.
The chaos ended with the Supreme Court stepping in and handing George Bush the win. Although it wasn’t the usual rigging we are used to, it still showed how fragile even modern and well-funded democracies can be when the technology used during elections is older than fax machines.
Zimbabwe 2008: Democracy by Beating
Our time-traveling machine is now landing in Zimbabwe, in a time when elections came with intimidation, violence, and the kind of landslide victory that only a dictator could imagine.
“Violence is another form of rigging that can be used when a leader is desperate enough to hold onto power.”
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader for decades, lost the 2008 election fair and square. However, instead of handing over power, he played the long game, and dare I say, the bloody one.
The state delayed the release of the election results for five weeks. During that time, supporters of the opposition were beaten, jailed, or worse. When the results were eventually released, the leader of the opposing party, Morgan Tsvangirai, had dropped out. Mugabe was declared the winner. He won by a landslide that was built on fear.
This election shows us that violence is another form of rigging that can be used when a leader is desperate enough to hold onto power.
2024–2025: A New Era and a New Form of Rigging
Now let’s come back to the present, or maybe the future. This is where AI, deepfakes, and social media memes are the major players on the electoral battlefield.
We are now in the most terrifying age of all. An era where the rigging creeps up on us. It does not resemble the bribes or ballot boxes we are accustomed to. This era now utilizes memes, bots, and deepfake videos as tools for rigging.
For example, during India’s 2024 election, AI-generated videos of politicians spread rapidly. It made voters question what was real and what was not.
In the U.S., TikTok influencers were paid to promote a particular party, and some political ads utilized stolen data to target citizens’ fears and fantasies.
Now, the new vote-riggers don’t need thugs or lots of cash. They just need our screen time. The scariest part is that you might not even notice what is being done.
When Electoral Rigging Fails
Before we wrap up, let’s look at the times when some electoral rigging failed. The times when the people resisted and pushed back.
In 1986, the Philippines overthrew a dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. They did this after he declared himself the winner of a rigged election. Millions of people marched in protest, forcing him to flee.
In Belarus in 2020, Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection, which was widely regarded as rigged, led to mass protests that nearly unseated him. All of this is enough to prove that even a rigged system is not invincible.
Democracy Is Not Dead, It is Just in Trouble!
If you made it this far, congrats. You’ve just learned one of the world’s most uncomfortable truths: Rigging elections is nothing new; it is a tradition.
From ancient Rome to AI-generated misinformation, those in power have consistently found ways to maintain their position, some through legal means, some through illegal means, and many in between.
However, history also shows us something else: the vote still matters because if it didn’t, those in power would not go through so much trouble to steal it.
So don’t give up on democracy, just keep in mind that it was never perfect. The good news is that every rigged election eventually hits a breaking point, and when it does, change doesn’t come from the top. It comes from people who refuse to be fooled over and over again.
What do you think about this stance on democracy? Let us know in the comments.
