Auditing local elections by comparing polling stations in every precinct finds evidence of electoral fraud in Mexico

Mexico’s history of corrupt elections throughout the 20th century casts a long shadow. Determining whether or not voter fraud and electoral corruption are a thing of the past is not easy, as the perpetrators tend to want to keep their activities hidden. In new research, Francisco Cantu uses a new technique to investigate voter fraud. Taking advantage of Mexico’s assignation of voters to polling stations by childhood surnames, he is able to compare differences in turnout between polling stations in electoral precincts that would be caused by voter fraud. He finds that three states had these voter irregularities during the 2010 gubernatorial elections.