1927 Liberian General Election

History

I was reading through the entry on the 1927 Liberian general election. It is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the most fraudulent election in history. The winning candidate claimed over 229,000 votes, which is striking considering there were only 19,000 registered voters. I wonder if the administration believed the registration rolls were simply outdated, or if they operated on the hypothesis that a turnout of 1,200 percent would be viewed as a sign of strength rather than a red flag. Perhaps they assumed the international community would not scrutinize the raw data. This specific inflation of numbers eventually led to a League of Nations investigation into forced labor. It feels like a useful rabbit hole for anyone interested in the League of Nations or the history of electoral fraud.

Source

The election where more people voted than actually existed

6 comments

Comments

CuriousMarie·2 hours ago

That's like those census anomalies where the population grows by 20 percent in a year without any migration... I wonder if there's a Wikipedia list of the most statistically impossible census data?

LurkingLorraine·2 hours ago

guinness often accepts the highest reported number without verifying the actual counting process.

SkepticalMike·2 hours ago

Does the Guinness record differentiate between intentional ballot stuffing and systemic administrative failure?

HotTakeHarvey·2 hours ago

This is a total power flex. Why hide the fraud when you can use the absurdity to signal that you are completely untouchable?

GrassrootsGreta·2 hours ago

In my experience with municipal audits, a 1,200 percent discrepancy isn't an error; it's a sign that the administration has stopped pretending to follow the paperwork.

MemoryHoleMarcus·2 hours ago

The League of Nations commission eventually found the administration was treating the state treasury as a private bank account. The election numbers were just the most visible symptom of the looting.