On election evening 2020, then-President Donald Trump prematurely declared hours after polls had closed: “We have already got gained.”
He hadn’t, and we rated that “Pants on Fireplace”. When Trump started to talk within the early morning of November 4, at 2:21am ET, states had been nonetheless following regular procedures to rely ballots. It was not till Saturday, November 7, that The Related Press had adequate unofficial outcomes out there to name the race for Joe Biden.
Previously, when polls closed, politicians and social media influencers unfold falsehoods about voting and the ballot-counting course of. It’s doubtless that because the votes are being counted this 12 months, we’ll see falsehoods just like these in 2020.
Voters who’re in search of credible sources for election outcomes info can comply with stories from state election officers nationwide, compiled by the Nationwide Affiliation of State Election Administrators. The AP is among the many information shops that can name projected winners primarily based on unofficial outcomes, however in lots of states that won’t happen on election evening.
Listed below are some falsehoods which may floor after the polls shut.
Claims about hundreds of lifeless voters
It’s a zombie declare we see throughout each election cycle: enormous numbers of lifeless individuals are voting! And they’re all Democrats! Neither is true.
As poll counting was beneath manner in November 2020, X posts falsely stated that greater than 14,000 lifeless individuals voted in Wayne County, Michigan.
Sometimes when voters die, it’s uncommon that their relations contact native elections workplaces to ask that their names be faraway from voter rolls. However election workplaces routinely obtain loss of life data from state and federal sources after which take away lifeless voters’ names from voter rolls. Some nonetheless find yourself on the rolls.
Often, individuals illegally solid mail ballots in lifeless relations’ names, as a Republican did in 2020 in Nevada. That voter was charged with felonies.
Claims that poll errors and election web site mishaps equal fraud
Though election officers spend years getting ready for presidential elections, errors generally happen.
They don’t seem to be an indication of fraud.
To date this 12 months, now we have seen a restricted variety of ballots with errors, reminiscent of a typo in some ballots in Palm Seaside County, Florida. County officers stated 257 abroad voters opened an e-mail with a poll that stated “Tom” Walz as a substitute of Tim Walz, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s working mate.
Some election websites have mishaps, reminiscent of a 6am water leak on Election Day in 2020 at Atlanta’s State Farm Area, the place election employees had been counting absentee ballots. Area workers repaired the leak in about two hours and no ballots or machines had been broken. State and county election officers debunked the declare that election officers used the occasion to bypass processes and pull out ballots saved in “suitcases” that had been “all for Biden”.
Claims of hundreds of faux votes in Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, officers stated in an preliminary October 25 assertion that they had been investigating 2,500 “ballots”, however a county spokesperson later stated that phrase was a mistake and the investigation was into voter registration functions.
Days later, Trump falsely stated at an Allentown, Pennsylvania, rally: “We caught them with 2,600 votes. … And each vote was written by the identical individual.” He made comparable feedback on X about “faux ballots and kinds” in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Legal professional Basic Michelle Henry, a Democrat, stated in an October 31 assertion: “The investigations regard voter registration kinds, not ballots” and had been beneath manner in 4 counties.
Officers don’t place individuals on voter rolls if their registration is suspect, so meaning that there have been not hundreds of faux votes.
Claims about machines flipping votes
As Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote on November 2 on X: “Light reminder that vote-switching is fiction.” He linked to a 2008 video of Homer Simpson making an attempt to vote for Barack Obama however repeatedly voting for former Senator John McCain, R-Ariz.
Election officers going through stories of “flipped” or “switched” votes have stated that generally that’s person error and, when voters deliver it to their consideration, officers ensure voters can solid ballots with their desired decisions.
That’s what occurred in Tarrant County, Texas, when one individual out of greater than 100,000 voters reported having a vote for Trump modified to Harris when the poll was printed. Native election officers stated the voting machines weren’t flipping candidates and urged the voter made a mistake when deciding on most popular candidates. That poll was destroyed and the voter was allowed to vote once more.
An October Instagram submit stated voting machines in Shelby County, Tennessee, had been swapping votes from Harris to Trump. Election officers stated there have been no voting machine malfunctions. Voters had inadvertently touched the mistaken space of the poll when utilizing the touchscreen voting machines.
Rampant non-citizen voting doesn’t happen
Trump and his supporters have falsely claimed that Democrats are behind a scheme to lure non-citizens to the US to vote in federal elections. That’s not taking place.
Federal regulation bans non-citizens from voting in federal elections.
Non-citizens generally land on voter rolls, typically accidentally when getting driver’s licences. Nevertheless, voting by non-citizens in federal elections is uncommon. The most important case with convictions we discovered was in 2020 in North Carolina, when federal prosecutors charged 19 individuals with voter fraud after they solid ballots, largely within the 2016 election. For context, greater than 4.5 million individuals in North Carolina voted within the 2016 presidential election.
Claims that election officers rip up or trash ballots
When you’re an election employee committing election fraud, you most likely wouldn’t movie your self opening mail poll envelopes, calling out the votes in these ballots, cursing towards one candidate and ripping up ballots marked for that candidate.
However that’s what one ridiculous viral video seems to indicate, main X customers to say that mail ballots with votes for Trump are being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Federal officers stated Russian actors manufactured and amplified the video.
Claims in 2020 about massive numbers of ballots discovered within the garbage had been both made up or had been about spoiled ballots that had been legally destroyed.
Claims that election officers sneak in ‘poll dumps’ late at evening
It’s common for one candidate to take the lead in early outcomes however not be the winner as extra ballots are counted. For instance, in Pennsylvania, if it takes longer to rely votes in left-leaning Philadelphia than in a extra right-leaning a part of the state, it’s potential that Trump could lead on the state early within the evening however see the margins shift later.
Trump tweeted the declare on November 4 2020: “Final evening I used to be main, typically solidly, in lots of key states, in nearly all cases Democrat run and managed. Then, one after the other, they began to magically disappear as shock poll dumps had been counted.”
In some states, Trump did initially lead, solely to see Biden ultimately take the lead. However in different states, Biden led and Trump got here again to take the lead.
There’s nothing nefarious about native election officers updating ends in the hours and days after polls shut. In reality, it means they’re counting all authentic ballots. State legal guidelines dictate the method, together with when officers can begin opening mail ballots. Which means it takes time to complete the rely. Some states, reminiscent of Pennsylvania, don’t enable election employees to start processing mail ballots till Election Day, whereas different states enable that to start weeks earlier.
Claims that mass voter fraud in 2020 affected the election’s consequence
After the polls closed in 2020, a cascade of social media pictures and images claimed to indicate ballot employees and others committing voter fraud. However the posts largely confirmed election officers doing their jobs.
The election system in our nation makes such a heist each unlikely and impossibly elaborate.
“We should always name this what it’s: Trump laying the groundwork so he can solid doubt on the 2024 outcomes if he doesn’t win,” Joanna Lydgate, CEO of the nonpartisan States United Democracy Middle, advised PolitiFact in early October.
To construct a adequate Electoral Faculty margin, dangerous actors must collaborate throughout battleground states in a coordinated however secret manner, with a whole bunch of individuals risking felonies for a similar aim.
Pulling this off would require hundreds of unlawful votes. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Basis exhibits about 1,300 convictions for voter fraud over many years. Throughout that interval, billions of votes had been solid.
Claims of early victory
Talking on the White Home hours after the polls closed in 2020, Trump stated: “We wish all voting to cease. We don’t want them to search out any ballots at 4 o’clock within the morning and add them to the checklist, OK? It’s a really unhappy second. … And we’ll win this.”
There is no such thing as a state or federal regulation that claims vote counting should cease a couple of hours after the polls shut. Election officers would have violated legal guidelines in the event that they merely stopped counting authentic ballots.
State legal guidelines set the certification deadline in November or December, so the official outcomes won’t be recognized for weeks after Election Day. Nevertheless, media shops are prone to undertaking a winner far sooner than that.
