Also, bribing voters is a thing. It would be far cheaper to pay 2X to buy X votes where each of the bribed voters keep half the money and buy a vote with other half.
Is it though?
In my country, elections are fair. If you ask people on the street -- they will say they believe in democracy. Which is reasonable since the concept of voting is easy to understand.
Offering free food for in exchange for votes is still a thing though, since voters know that everyone on the ballot is a corrupt sack of shit. They're going to end up equally fucked either way -- might as well pick up some free food along with it.
One issue in the US is how certain communities organize to stack members in districts until they can affect elections, then bribe and extort politicians for concessions, to stop them from expanding into other districts, or to vote a certain way.
It's an incredible racket because it's also the system "working as intended".