On election evening 2020, then-President Donald Trump prematurely declared hours after polls had closed, “We have already got received.”
He hadn’t, and we rated that Pants on Fire. When Trump started to talk within the early morning of Nov. 4, at 2:21 a.m. ET, states have been nonetheless following regular procedures to depend ballots. It was not till Saturday, Nov. 7, that The Related Press had ample unofficial outcomes out there to name the race for Joe Biden.
Up to now, when polls closed, politicians and social media influencers unfold falsehoods about voting and the poll counting course of. It’s doubtless that because the votes are being counted this yr, we’ll see falsehoods just like these in 2020.
Voters who’re in search of credible sources for election outcomes info can comply with studies from state election officials nationwide, compiled by the Nationwide Affiliation of State Election Administrators. The AP is among the many information shops that can name projected winners based mostly on unofficial outcomes, however in lots of states that will not take place on election night.
Listed here are some falsehoods which may floor after the polls shut.
It’s a zombie declare we see throughout each election cycle: Huge numbers of lifeless individuals are voting! And they are all Democrats! Neither is true.
As poll counting was underway in November 2020, X posts falsely mentioned that over 14,000 dead people voted in Wayne County, Michigan.
Usually when voters die, it’s uncommon that their family contact native elections workplaces to ask that their names be faraway from voter rolls. However election workplaces routinely obtain demise information 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 family’ names, as a Republican did in 2020 in Nevada. That voter was charged with felonies.
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 yr, we’ve seen a restricted variety of ballots with errors, resembling a typo in some ballots in Palm Seashore County, Florida. County officers mentioned 257 abroad voters opened an e-mail with a poll that mentioned “Tom” Walz as an alternative of Tim Walz, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ working mate.
Some election websites have mishaps, resembling a 6 a.m. water leak on Election Day in 2020 at Atlanta’s State Farm Area, the place election staff have been counting absentee ballots. Area workers repaired the leak in about two hours and no ballots or machines have been broken. State and county election officers debunked the claim that election officers used the occasion to bypass processes and pull out ballots saved in “suitcases” that have been “all for Biden.”
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, officers mentioned in an preliminary Oct. 25 assertion that they have been investigating 2,500 “ballots,” however a county spokesperson later mentioned that phrase was a mistake and the investigation was into voter registration purposes.
Days later, Trump falsely said at an Allentown, Pennsylvania, rally, “We caught them with 2,600 votes. … And each vote was written by the identical particular person.” He made related feedback on X about “pretend ballots and types” in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Legal professional Basic Michelle Henry, a Democrat, said in an Oct. 31 assertion, “The investigations regard voter registration types, not ballots” and have been underway in 4 counties.
Officers don’t place individuals on voter rolls if their registration is suspect, so which means that there have been not 1000’s of pretend votes.
As Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams wrote Nov. 2 on X, “Mild 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 Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Election officers dealing with studies of “flipped” or “switched” votes have mentioned it generally is person error, and when voters convey it to their consideration, officers be certain that voters can solid ballots with their desired selections.
That’s what occurred in Tarrant County, Texas, when one person out of more than 100,000 voters reported having a vote for Trump modified to Harris when the poll was printed. Native election officers mentioned the voting machines usually are not flipping candidates and instructed the voter made a mistake when deciding on most well-liked candidates.That poll was destroyed and the voter was allowed to vote once more.
An October Instagram post mentioned voting machines in Shelby County, Tennessee, have been swapping votes from Harris to Trump. Election officers mentioned there have been no voting machine malfunctions. Voters had inadvertently touched the incorrect space of the poll when utilizing the touchscreen voting machines.
Trump and his supporters have falsely claimed that Democrats are behind a scheme to lure noncitizens to the U.S. to vote in federal elections. That’s not occurring. Federal legislation bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Noncitizens generally land on voter rolls, usually accidentally when getting drivers licenses. Nonetheless, voting by noncitizens in federal elections is uncommon. The largest case with convictions we discovered was in 2020 in North Carolina, when federal prosecutors charged 19 people with voter fraud after they solid ballots, principally within the 2016 election. For context, greater than 4.5 million individuals in North Carolina voted within the 2016 presidential election.
For those who’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 in opposition to one candidate and ripping up ballots marked for that candidate.
However that’s what one ridiculous viral video seems to point out, main X customers to assert that mail ballots with votes for Trump are being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Federal officers mentioned Russian actors manufactured and amplified the video.
Claims in 2020 about massive numbers of ballots found in the trash have been both made up or were about spoiled ballots that have been legally destroyed.
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 depend votes in left-leaning Philadelphia than in a extra right-leaning a part of the state, it’s doable that Trump may lead the state early within the evening however see the margins shift later.
Trump tweeted the claim on Nov. 4, 2020, “Final evening I used to be main, usually solidly, in lots of key States, in nearly all situations Democrat run & managed. Then, one after the other, they began to magically disappear as shock poll dumps have been counted.”
In some states, Trump did initially lead, solely to see Biden finally 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. The truth is, it means they’re counting all official ballots. State legal guidelines dictate the method, together with when officers can begin opening mail ballots. Meaning it takes time to complete the depend. Some states, resembling Pennsylvania, don’t enable election staff to start processing mail ballots till Election Day, whereas different states enable that to start weeks earlier.
After the polls closed in 2020, a cascade of social media photos and photographs claimed to point out ballot staff and others committing voter fraud. However the posts principally confirmed election officials doing their jobs.
The election system in our nation makes such a heist each unlikely and impossibly elaborate.
“We must 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 Heart, told PolitiFact in early October.
To construct a ample Electoral School margin, dangerous actors must collaborate throughout battleground states in a coordinated however secret method, with a whole bunch of individuals risking felonies for a similar aim.
Pulling this off would require 1000’s of unlawful votes. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Basis exhibits about 1,300 convictions for voter fraud over a long time. Throughout that interval, there have been billions of votes solid.
Talking on the White Home hours after the polls closed in 2020, Trump said, “We wish all voting to cease. We don’t need them to seek out any ballots at 4 o’clock within the morning and add them to the record, okay? It’s a really unhappy second. … And we’ll win this.”
There isn’t a state or federal legislation that claims vote counting should cease a number of hours after the polls shut. Election officers would have violated legal guidelines in the event that they merely stopped counting official ballots.
State legal guidelines set the certification deadline in November or December, so the official outcomes received’t be identified for weeks after Election Day. However media shops are more likely to challenge a winner far sooner than that.
This truth examine was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this truth examine here.
