When Donald Trump misplaced his re-election bid in 2020, many Republicans (together with Trump) made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. Now, following Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in 2024, a few of her liberal supporters are taking to social media to allege fraud.
“I spent my early profession in cybersecurity for the Navy and NSA,” Wayne Madsen, a author recognized for spreading conspiracy theories, wrote in a Nov. 6 Threads put up. “I am beginning to consider that our election was massively hacked identical to what occurred just a few weeks in the past within the Republic of Georgia. Assume Elon Musk, StarLink, Peter Thiel, [Steve] bannon, [Michael] Flynn and [Vladimir] Putin. “20 million Democratic votes don’t simply disappear.”
One other poster dissuaded Harris from conceding the election, equally alleging electoral discrepancies. “20 million votes lower than the final elections? 14 million extra votes for Trump than for Harris? “Trump and people round him had been greater than assured that Trump would win,” the Nov. 6 Threads put up reads. “We want an investigation. “This election was stolen.”
Posts from Fb, Instagram and Threads had been flagged as a part of Meta’s efforts to fight pretend information and misinformation in its Information Feed.
These statements are inaccurate. There have been no credible allegations of voter fraud or proof of votes disappearing in the course of the 2024 election.
On Nov. 6, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company Director Jen Easterly stated election officers are nonetheless counting votes and reported no incidents compromising election safety.
“As we have now stated repeatedly, our election infrastructure has by no means been safer and the election neighborhood has by no means been higher ready to ship protected, free and honest elections for the American individuals,” Easterly stated. “That is what we noticed yesterday within the peaceable and protected train of democracy. Importantly, we have now no proof of any malicious exercise that has had a fabric impression on the safety or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
Equally, Ishan Mehta, director of media and democracy at Frequent Trigger, a public advocacy group, stated the 2024 election was safe and “pretty easy.”
He stated Frequent Trigger has hundreds of volunteers in all 50 states who monitored the election at polling stations and vote counting facilities. The group additionally has a crew that screens conversations concerning the vote on social media.
That is why Frequent Trigger sometimes is aware of when election issues come up, and people incidents normally find yourself being “some sort of human or machine error that we have now techniques in place to appropriate,” Mehta stated.
Such incidents don’t imply that “the election was hacked or that there was any form of nefarious exercise to vary Individuals’ precise votes,” he stated.
“There is no such thing as a proof that votes disappeared” or different fraudulent exercise in the course of the 2024 election, Mehta stated. He additionally stated he knew of no proof of makes an attempt, a lot much less profitable efforts, to “hack” or “steal” the election.
Even when such makes an attempt occurred, they’d fail, consultants stated.
“There is no such thing as a ‘trick’ to vary the end result of an election or change the vote whole,” Mehta stated. “Every state has its personal unbiased, unconnected techniques,” and ballot employees are skilled to prepare elections and repair any issues that come up and take that accountability critically.
Voter turnout in 2024 nonetheless being calculated, however fluctuations don’t point out fraud, consultants say
Consultants repeatedly informed PolitiFact that voter turnout rises and falls from election to election.
Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed Faculty, stated components similar to enthusiasm for candidates, marketing campaign efforts and the competitiveness of an election have an effect on voter turnout.
“If the ultimate outcomes present that 20 million fewer votes had been forged for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2024 than in 2020, what that signifies is that 20 million voters made the choice to not vote, or to not prove in any respect, o Do not examine the primary contest,” Gronke stated. “That is the top of the story.”
Election denial is undemocratic, stated David Becker, govt director and founding father of the Middle for Election Analysis and Innovation, a nonpartisan group that works with election officers from each political events to construct confidence in elections.
“We are going to know the whole turnout as soon as the states certify the votes, in just a few weeks,” he informed PolitiFact. Becker referred to information from the College of Florida: “We’re on observe to have the second highest turnout in American historical past and the second or third highest turnout by proportion since 18-year-olds had been granted the fitting to vote.” to vote. vote,” he stated.
As of 4 p.m. on November 7, Trump acquired 72.8 million votes and Harris acquired about 68 million votes. In 2020, Trump acquired 74.2 million votes and President Joe Biden acquired 81.2 million.
“Election officers, election observers, election attorneys, partisan observers, nonpartisan observers and election science consultants like myself pay shut consideration to elections in any respect ranges,” Gronke stated. “There have been studies of some failures in scattered places. “There is no such thing as a proof in anyway that fraud occurred, and positively not on the dimensions steered right here.”
Our failure
Threads publishes alleged voter fraud, says 20 million Democratic votes “disappeared” in 2024.
Election consultants and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company reported no proof of lacking votes or widespread fraud in the course of the 2024 presidential election.
It is regular for voter turnout to fluctuate from election to election, consultants stated.
We qualify these statements Pants on hearth!
