Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has sharpened his allegations that the US presidential election is rigged in his rival's favour. In some parts of rural Illinois, FRANCE 24 finds many of his supporters believe Trump.

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Evelyn and Merle Hays are casting their ballots – for Trump -- in the town of Paris, Illinois.

Early voting in the US presidential election is already underway in some states and this American couple believes their candidate's claims that the election could be rigged in Democrat Hillary Clinton’s favour.

The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 16 October 2016

Real accusations of voter fraud are few and far between, but Illinois has a long history of political corruption.

In rural Kankakee County, federal and state officials are investigating voter fraud allegations. Three people came to Paris county clerk, Bruce Clark, alleging that they were offered bribes for their vote. “The complaint was people were being offered beer and cigarettes for their vote,” explained Clark. “There were offers from the Democratic Party.”

Clark has turned over the complaints to law enforcement officials.

Those reporting this story however don’t see any signs of a conspiracy, but that does not lessen the damage these fraud allegations wreak on voter confidence.

“Even if they are unsubstantiated, which they largely have been in the past five years, all it does is cast a pall over the election,” said Dimitrios Kalantzis, managing editor of the local Daily Journal newspaper.

As the Trump bandwagon appears to be heading toward a defeat, with opinion polls showing Democrat Clinton in the lead, his claims have alarm bells ringing across the US just weeks ahead of November 8th polling day.

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