When Donald Trump misplaced his reelection bid in 2020, many Republicans — Trump included — made unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. Now, following Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss, a few of her liberal supporters are taking to social media to allege fraud.
“I spent my early profession in pc safety for the Navy and NSA,” wrote Wayne Madsen, a author recognized to unfold conspiracy theories, in a Nov. 6 Threads submit. “I’m starting to imagine our election was massively hacked similar to occurred a couple of weeks in the past within the Republic of Georgia. Suppose Elon Musk, StarLink, Peter Thiel, (Steve) Bannon, (Michael) Flynn and (Vladimir) Putin. 20 million Democratic votes don’t disappear on their very own.”
One other poster discouraged Harris from conceding the election, equally alleging election discrepancies.
“20 million much less votes than final election? 14 million extra votes for Trump over Harris? Trump and people round him have been greater than assured Trump would win,” learn the Nov. 6 Threads submit. “We want an investigation. This election was stolen.”
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(Screenshot from Threads)
These claims are inaccurate. There have been no credible allegations of election fraud or proof of votes that disappeared in the course of the 2024 election.
On Nov. 6, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company Director Jen Easterly stated that election officers are nonetheless counting votes and reported no incidents of compromised election safety.
“As we have now stated repeatedly, our election infrastructure has by no means been safer and the election group by no means higher ready to ship protected, safe, free, and truthful elections for the American folks,” Easterly stated. “That is what we noticed yesterday within the peaceable and safe train of democracy. Importantly, we have now no proof of any malicious exercise that had a cloth affect 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 protected, safe and “fairly easy.”
He stated Frequent Trigger has 1000’s of volunteers in all 50 states who monitored the election at polling websites and vote counting facilities. The group additionally has a workforce that screens chatter about voting on social media. Due to that, Frequent Trigger sometimes is aware of when election points come up — and people incidents sometimes find yourself being “some type of machine or human error that we have now methods to right,” Mehta stated.
Such incidents don’t imply “the election was hacked, or there was any type of nefarious exercise to alter any People’ precise votes,” he stated.
“There isn’t a proof that any votes disappeared,” or of different fraudulent exercise in the course of the 2024 election, Mehta stated. He additionally stated he knew of no proof of makes an attempt — not to mention profitable efforts — to “hack” or “steal” the election.
Even when such makes an attempt occurred, they’d fail, specialists stated.
“There isn’t a one ‘hack’ to alter the end result of an election or to alter vote totals,” Mehta stated. “Every state has its personal unbiased, non-connected methods,” and election employees are skilled to run elections and repair any points that come up and take that accountability severely.
2024 voter turnout continues to be being calculated, however fluctuations don’t sign fraud, specialists say
Consultants repeatedly instructed PolitiFact that voter turnout ebbs and flows from election to election.
Paul Gronke, a Reed School political science professor, stated elements similar to enthusiasm for the candidates, marketing campaign efforts and an election’s competitiveness all have an effect on voter turnout.
“If the ultimate outcomes present that 20 million fewer votes have been forged for the Democratic candidate for President in 2024 than in 2020, what that signifies is that 20 million voters decided to not forged a poll, both not prove in any respect, or not test the highest contest,” Gronke stated. “That’s the top of the story.”
Election denial is antidemocratic, stated David Becker, the manager director and founding father of the Heart for Election Innovation and Analysis, a nonpartisan group that works with election officers from each political events to construct belief in elections.
“We are going to know the total turnout as soon as the votes are licensed by the states, in a couple of weeks,” he instructed PolitiFact. Becker pointed to knowledge from the College of Florida: “We’re on observe to have the second highest turnout in votes in U.S. historical past, and the second or third highest turnout in share since 18 12 months olds have been granted the correct to vote,” he stated.
Election denial is anti-democratic, whether or not it comes from the left or the correct. No, 20 million votes aren’t lacking. Votes are nonetheless being counted in lots of states, incl tens of millions in CA alone. Variety of votes in 2024 very near 2020, when all are reported…
— David Becker (@beckerdavidj) November 6, 2024
As of 4 p.m. Nov. 7, Trump obtained 72.8 million votes and Harris obtained about 68 million votes. In 2020, Trump obtained 74.2 million votes and President Joe Biden obtained 81.2 million.
“Election officers, election screens, election attorneys, partisan observers, non partisan observers, and election science specialists like myself pay very shut consideration to elections at each degree,” Gronke stated. “There have been stories of some glitches in scattered places. There isn’t a proof in any respect of something fraudulent, actually not on the sort of scale being urged right here.”
Our ruling
Threads posts alleged election fraud and stated 20 million Democratic votes “disappeared” in 2024.
Election specialists and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company reported no proof of disappearing votes or widespread fraud in the course of the 2024 presidential election.
It’s regular for voter turnout to fluctuate from election to election, specialists stated.
We fee these claims Pants on Hearth!
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