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How Past Contested Elections Have Changed American Democracy

Dora Mekouar

   President Donald Trump isnotthe first candidate to contest the results
   of a U.S. presidential election.

   Allegations of voter fraud swirledaround the 1960 contest between
   Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon. Republicans
   suspectedthat Chicago Mayor Richard Daley fraudulently delivered just
   enough votes to give Kennedy the state of Illinois and the presidency.
   But Nixon ultimately declined to pursue the matter.

   "There's some evidence to suggest again that Nixon didn't want to make
   things that divisive," saysAlexander Cohen, assistant professor of
   political science at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

   Modernized voting systems

   Contested elections in America's past have had varying degrees of
   impact -- from minimal to devastating.

   In the modern era,thehotly contested2000 election led to updated voting
   systems. The outcome of the contest between Republican George W. Bush
   and Democrat Al Gore came down to Florida and, ultimately, the U.S.
   Supreme Court.

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