The reality is, because so many counties do things in so many different ways, it’s impossible for there not to be inefficiencies that cause discrepancy. Political parties have, in the past, taken advantage of our confusing election process to manipulate the outcomes of certain precincts.
Foul-play aside, data storage and transmission is likely the source of the problem. Voter rolls are not usually corroborated with other state mechanisms for identification, leading to phenomena such as deceased individuals remaining as eligible to cast votes – giving a bad actor the opportunity to vote in their stead. In addition, the lack of centralization between states can, and has, lead to many individuals being registered to vote in two or more states.
In the end, it is quite unlikely that millions of illegal votes were cast – though it may be possible. Regardless, it is entirely the result of partisan politics that many easy-fix measures to this issue, such as requiring a legal ID to be presented at a polling site, are decried as a return to Jim Crow laws.
