4. Conditions Conducive to Election Fraud Most election fraud is aimed at corrupting elections for local offices, which control or influence patronage positions and contracting for materials and services. Election fraud schemes are thus often linked to such other crimes as protection of illegal activities, corruption of local governmental processes, and patronage abuses. Election fraud does not normally occur in jurisdictions where one political faction enjoys widespread support among the electorate, because in such a situation it is usually unnecessary or impractical to resort to election fraud in order to control local public offices. 11 Instead, election fraud occurs most frequently when there are fairly equal political factions, and when the stakes involved in who controls public offices are weighty – as is often the case when patronage jobs are a major source of employment, or when illicit activities are being protected from law enforcement scrutiny. In sum, election fraud is most likely to occur in electoral jurisdictions where there is close factional competition for an elected position that matters. 5. Voter Participation Versus Non-voter Participation Cases As a practical matter, election frauds fall into two basic categories: those in which individual voters do not participate in the fraud, and those in which they do. The investigative approach and prosecutive potential are different for each type of case. Election fraud might occur at the local level in districts controlled by one political faction in order to affect a contested election in a larger jurisdiction. For example, a corrupt mayor assured of his own reelection might nevertheless engage in election fraud for the purpose of affecting a state-wide election that is perceived to be close. 11 27