Rigging An Election Is Just As Far Fetched As It Sounds

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The ballot counting machines are being checked and the equipment prepared, as early voting begins in less than a week.

This comes as Donald Trump continues claiming the election is already filled with fraud, but so far he's shown no proof.

"The election is rigged," Trump said during a campaign speech. "It's rigged like you've never seen before."

He's getting a lot of blowback from those comments.

At Monday night's debate, Trump supporter Marco Rubio even said Trump should stop saying it.

"This election's not being rigged," Rubio said during the debate. "We have 67 counties in this state, each of which conduct their own elections.  I promise you there is not a 67 county conspiracy to rig the election."

President Obama is even responding to Trump's allegations.

The president mentioned Florida, saying elections here are overseen by Trump's own party.

"There are places like Florida, for example, where you've got a republican governor whose republican appointees are going to be running and monitoring a whole bunch of these election sites," said President Obama.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner put out a statement, saying in part, "We have many safeguards in place and voters should feel confident that their votes will be counted."

Broward Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes explains with all the checks and balances and voter verification methods, large scale fraud would be very difficult to pull off.

"There are too many systems and procedures in place that would have to be reversed," said Dr. Snipes. "By the time we'd finish reversing, or figure out a way we could rig an election, the election would be over."

Charles Zelden is a professor at Nova Southeastern University.  He says changing the outcome of a close election comes from stopping people from making it to the polls.

"The way you game the system is not by putting in false votes, it's controlling who votes," Zelden said. "It's about controlling who can get registered to vote, it's about controlling who has access to the polls, it's about controlling the times they can vote, so that some people don't have the opportunity to vote. That's where the system is gamed."