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04-11-2024
WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK: Rumours, misleading allegations and outright lies about voting and fraud are flooding online spaces in unprecedented numbers in advance of the US election.
Hundreds of incidents involving purported voting irregularities are being collected and spread by individuals, as well as both independent and Republican-affiliated groups. A small number of posts are also coming from Democrats.
The whirlwind of claims spreading online poses a challenge to election officials who are having to debunk rumours and reassure voters, while preparing to administer Election Day on Tuesday.
In nearly every case, the posts support the Trump campaign’s false claim that the former president won the 2020 election and suggestions that he will potentially be cheated out of victory again on 5 November.
When asked whether he will accept the 2024 election result, Donald Trump said during the presidential debate in September that he would if it was a “fair and legal and good election”. A majority of Americans 70% expect him to reject the result if he loses, according to a CNN/SSRS poll released Monday.
Just this week, Trump himself claimed widespread fraud in a key swing state.
“Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. “REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!”
The allegation followed officials in three Pennsylvania counties saying they were working with local law enforcement to investigate some voter registration applications for potential fraud while Trump and allies seized on the announcements, the state’s top election official, Republican Al Schmidt, has urged caution and warned voters to be aware of “half-truths” and disinformation circulating on social media. “This is a sign that the built-in safeguards in our voter registration process are working,” he said. The media has seen hundreds of allegations of election fraud online, on social networks and on message boards and in chat groups. Some of these posts have been viewed millions of times each.
The posts have implied it’s easy for non-citizens to vote, made false claims about voting machines and sowed distrust in the ballot-counting process.
One video claimed to show recently-arrived Haitians voting in Georgia.
The BBC has found clear indications, including false addresses and stock photos, which indicate the video is a fake. On Friday US security officials said it was made by “Russian influence actors”.
Another person on X claiming they were Canadian posted a picture of a ballot and said: “Figured I would drive across the border and vote.”
It, too, is a fake, and part of an effort coordinated on the fringe message board 4chan. The ballot shown is from Florida, a state that requires identification to vote in person and is about a 20-hour drive from the Canadian border.
Meanwhile in Northhampton County, Pennsylvania, a video was posted showing a man dropping off a container of ballots at a courthouse, alleging suspicious activity. It turned out he was a postal worker delivering mail-in ballots but the video was seen more than five million times.
Experts worry the burst of misinformation just before Election Day could undermine people’s trust in the results or lead to threats and violence in the lead-up to the election and beyond. It’s happened before. In the hours and days that followed the 2020 presidential election, while votes were still being counted, then-President Trump turned to social media to allege fraud and falsely claim that he was the real winner of the election. “Stop the steal” became a slogan of his supporters’ movement to overturn the results. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
