Election Rigging?

The other day I briefly got into a discussion about the perception that the other person's favorite candidate was being ignored by the media. I thought that this was rather odd, since my perception was that this candidate was receiving plenty of coverage. So I Googled the candidate's name and looked for news stories from the previous week. There were a roughly equal number of stories about all the top polling candidates. This information was shrugged off since "Of course, he just won the New Hampshire primary". So I did another search, going back about two months. Same approximate result. My debating partner was unfazed and moved the goalposts once again.

It seems to me that it's become common for candidates or their supporters, with little evidence, to suggest that the system, or the votes, or the party, have "rigged" things to their detriment. Some candidates have opined that if they lose the election, that's all the evidence of a crooked system that you need. With all of this we're careening headlong toward the day when someone refuses to leave office because of alleged rigging.

Let's stipulate that our election system needs a serious overhaul. The Electoral College often does not reflect the will of a majority of voters; money carries way too much weight; the primary system, actually 50 different systems run by private organizations, the political parties, resembles a reality show and the caucus rules would befuddle an MIT graduate.

Let's also stipulate that the system is not going to change any time soon - at least not in any major way.

If the Iowa caucus rules state that candidates who receive less than 15% of the votes are deemed "non-viable" and their voters have to make a second choice, then it makes no difference if your candidate received the most votes in the first round (I'm looking at you Sanders supporters). If you failed to garner enough electoral votes to win an election it is irrelevant that you received more actual votes by actual voters (now I'm looking at you Clinton people). For that matter, it's irrelevant that Russia interfered. No one is saying that any voting machine hacking took place, only that voters were stupid enough to be swayed by Facebook memes.

The system is what it is and if you want to win an election you play by the rules that are in place and not the way you think it should be or by whining about unfairness.