FOREWORD Elections are political and social processes characterized, among other aspects, by conflict and disputes. It may seem illogical, but disputes are indeed inherent to any electoral process. To some extent this is expected to be the case. When elections are competitive, when there are guarantees of fairness in the quest for votes, and when electors can freely choose their representatives - then individual votes matter, the people’s will matters, and parties and candidates “Due to its analytical breadth and handson approach, this Guidebook will be of great value to the community of electoral professionals worldwide. . . it is clear to me that this Elections Investigations Guidebook is a work that fills a gap that long ago needed to be filled.” will strive to show voters what sets them apart from their political competitors. Therefore, disputes and even a certain degree of non-violent conflict is inherent in elections, even or especially in democratic regimes. In a democracy, the political disputes that occur in elections have a different nature and are processed differently from other political contexts. There are at least three key features regarding how conflict and electoral disputes are addressed in democratic contexts. In a consolidated democracy, any political conflict always starts, first and foremost, from the recognition that all electoral alternatives are legitimate, that political opponents have the right to seek power, achieve it through suffrage, and exercise it, always under the rules of a constitutional democracy. Secondly, political actors acknowledge that electoral disputes, especially those of a strictly political nature, are in the end resolved through voting; in democracies, especially in the most consolidated, all the actors that are not favored with the vote of the majority recognize their defeat and the victory of their adversary. Recognizing defeat in an election, especially when characterized by intense and fair competition, is one of the most notable displays of civic and democratic behavior. The third feature of electoral disputes in a democracy is that when it is presumed, and then verified through exhaustive investigations, that a con- 7