Trump effectively rejects US election result before votes have even been counted

'Voter fraud is very, very common,' says Republican candidate, despite overwhelming evidence to contrary

Donald Trump has given his clearest indication yet that he will reject the result of the US presidential election as “rigged”, before any votes have even been cast.

Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin, the Republican candidate took his claims of widespread voter fraud to a level that is unprecedented in modern American politics.

Misrepresenting studies or citing none at all, Mr Trump said of his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton: “They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. And believe me, there's a lot going on.”

Mr Trump’s allies and representatives have ascribed his repeated assertions about a “rigged” election to concerns about media bias and collusion between the Clinton camp and federal authorities.

But on Monday night, the candidate himself was explicit, saying: “So many cities are corrupt, and voter fraud is very, very common.”

Most experts say voter fraud is extremely rare in the US, with one study by a Loyola Law School professor finding just 31 known cases of impersonation fraud out of one billion votes cast in US elections between 2000 and 2014.

Mr Trump also specifically stated that 1.8 million dead people would vote in the coming 8 November election, and that he was sure they would cast their ballot for “somebody else”.

His conspiracy theory appears based on a Pew Research Center study in 2012 which stated that “more than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters”. It cited the figure as evidence the electoral roll was not up to date, however, and made clear that these 1.8 million names had not actually cast votes.

The speech in Green Bay followed a series of tweets, posted on Monday morning, in which Mr Trump railed against the leadership of his own Republican party for being “so naive” as to believe there is no serious problem with electoral fraud.

“Do you ever hear these people?” he told a rowdy audience of Wisconsin fans. “They say there's nothing's going on. People that have died 10 years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. I mean, where are the street smarts of some of these politicians?”

Mr Trump was citing a controversial 2014 opinion piece in The Washington Post by a group of professors at Old Dominion University promoting their research concluding that "enough" non-citizens had voted in recent elections that their participation could plausibly change the outcome of close elections.

Their claims include the assertion that because non-citizens tend to favour Democrats, their votes could have been responsible for Barack Obama's 2008 victory in North Carolina.

There is no evidence the latter is the case - and the article spawned so much backlash over its methods and conclusions that the authors were prompted to issue a follow-up defence.

Ahead of Mr Trump’s Monday night speech, Ms Clinton faced fresh revelations about her use of a private email server as secretary of state and hacked emails from a top campaign official's personal account.

FBI records released earlier in the day showed that a senior State Department official unsuccessfully sought to lower the classification level of an email found on the server.

In the evening, Mr Trump labeled the move "collusion" and declared it even worse than Watergate.

"This is one of the great miscarriages of justice," he said, "in the history of our country."

The shift in tone from Mr Trump is in keeping with the way the campaign has deteriorated in the weeks since a relatively respectful showing at the first live TV debate, what feels a lifetime ago on 26 September.

Then, NBC News’ Lester Holt asked both candidates in his final question whether they would “accept the outcome as the will of the voters”.

Mr Trump did have to be pressed for an answer, but he eventually replied: “Look, here's the story. I want to make America great again. I'm going to be able to do it. I don't believe Hillary will. The answer is, if she wins, I will absolutely support her.”

Additional reporting by agencies

Read more: When is the final US presidential debate, and how to watch it.