This article will be made available in Spanish through El Tiempo Latino.
Quick Take
An inadvertent misspelling of former President Donald Trump’s name on an optional ballot review screen in Virginia caused widespread consternation on social media and raised allegations of “election fraud.” But election officials stated this typo only appeared on their review screen and would have no bearing on votes cast, according to them.
Virginia’s voting process offers an optional ballot review screen designed to display voter selections before casting their ballot, helping voters verify and correct errors before casting it. The optional screen provides voters a way of double checking and reverifying any errors made during selection of their selections before voting is cast.
Social media posts showing an apparent misspelling on a ballot review screen has led to false allegations of voter fraud in Virginia’s Washington County.
On Oct 29th Instagram posted video with former President Donald Trump misspelled as “Triump”. Accompanying text claims this voter lived in Virginia four days prior. Why is there an I in Donald J Trumps name?”
RealAF Patriot posted the video with a comment reading, “ELECTION FRAUD IN VIRGINIA!? A voter shows evidence of attempt at election fraud by spelling Trump incorrectly as Triump in order not to register their vote for Trump?” As reported by Twitter and YouTube, over 3 Million viewers watched and commented.
Andrea M. Gaines of Virginia Department of Elections informed us via email that mispelling of Trump’s name on equipment in Washington County happened there and could not verify where this video originated from. “We cannot confirm its source.”
Gaines clarified that this review screen did not impact tabulation of ballots or reporting of results.
Derek N. Lyall, director of elections and general registrar for Washington County told us in an email, that all voters cast their ballots using paper ballots with all candidates listed correctly on each paper ballot.
Lyall noted that this mistake was likely the result of typographical error on an optional ballot review screen that only activates when requested before inserting ballots – with less than twenty voters out of 10,000+ voters having used it so far in Washington County.
Lyall acknowledged the error was discovered too late for corrective programming of voting equipment for the election; however, all voting equipment had been thoroughly tested and was functioning as intended – “Our equipment is operating according to design, tabulating ballots in accordance with voter choices – any single typographical error on an optional ballot review screen won’t impact anyone’s vote”, Lyall claimed.
Lyall also explained that on Election Day a notice would be posted at every polling place alerting voters of this error.
Virginia has supported Democrats in each of the four presidential elections since 2016. Donald Trump fell just short in Virginia by 10 percentage points but won Washington County with 75.6% support.
FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared via social media, such as our previous stories available here. Facebook does not exercise control over our editorial content or editorial decisions made at FactCheck.org.
Sources 270 to Win: Virginia’s Recent Presidential Elections Accessed on 5 November 2024.
Murphy, Joe. Two charts and a map to make sense of early voting data.” NBC News 4 November 2024.
Gaines, Andrea. External Affairs Manager with Virginia Department of Elections; email to FactCheck.org on 4 November 2024.
Lyall, Derek N.: Washington County General Registrar in Virginia emailed FactCheck.org 4 November 2024
Virginia Public Access Project. “Early Voting in Virginia.” Accessed 5 Nov 2024.
