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False claims about ballots, interference

Online Niel November 6, 2024

Election day has arrived and with it a wave of false and misleading claims about supposed electoral interference. Voter tension is high as polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck and neck in battleground states.

From false claims about typos, errors and stray marks invalidating voters’ ballots to misleading claims about voting machines changing people’s votes, social media has been flooded with ballot misinformation as Americans across the country went to the polls.

Here are a series of ballot fact checks from the USA TODAY Fact Check Team. See all our latest work during and after Election Day on this page.

More from the fact-checking team: How we select and research claims | Newsletter by e-mail | Facebook page

Claim: Trump’s name on second page of California ballot is evidence of ‘election fraud’

Our Rating: False

Listing former President Donald Trump on the last page of the ballot is not evidence of voter fraud. The order of candidates on the California ballot is determined by a random drawing of the letter corresponding to the first letter of the candidates’ names. The order rotates by assembly district, so Trump was last in some districts.

Full Fact Check: Trump’s name on second page of ballot is random, not ‘election fraud’

Claim: The post implies that Kentucky’s faulty voting machine is evidence of election interference

Our Rating: Lacks context

The implication here is wrong. Officials investigated the incident and were able to recreate what is shown in the video hitting an area between the candidates’ name boxes. The ballot voter confirmed that his vote was finally marked correctly, the secretary of state said.

Full Fact Check: Officials say Kentucky vote was ‘isolated incident’

Claim: Video shows a “voting mule” in Nebraska

Our Rating: False

Nothing untoward happened in the video, according to the Lancaster County, Nebraska Board of Elections. The claim is said to have been investigated and officials have called local police to alert that department of the threats made to the man in the video.

Full Fact Check: The video shows a Nebraska man commemorating his first vote for president

Claim: Trump’s name misspelled on Virginia ballot is election fraud

Our Rating: False

A Virginia election official said the typo appears on a rarely used ballot review screen, not on the ballots themselves. It doesn’t affect how people vote because it can’t be seen until after voters make a selection on a paper ballot.

Full Fact Check: Trump’s name misspelled on voting machine review screen, not ‘election fraud’

Claim: Chicago suburb ‘didn’t register votes, just put votes in a box’

Our Rating: False

The ballots were properly handled and counted according to protocol, a spokesman for the Cook County Clerk’s Office said. They were temporarily stored in a closed ballot box until a malfunctioning scanner was repaired. These were then scanned on the same day to be officially accepted and will be counted with all other votes on election day.

Full Fact Check: Votes were still being counted after the ballot scanner broke in Illinois

Claim: Votes cast on ballots marked by election workers are disqualified

Our Rating: False

Several election experts said this is not true. Many states require election workers to mark or stamp ballots, and each jurisdiction has procedures for counting ballots that machines cannot read if the mark interferes with the automatic count.

Full Fact Check: Election officials reject the claim that the marked ballots are invalid

Claim: Voting machines in Georgia are changing people’s votes

Spokesmen for Dominion Voting Systems and the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said such a thing was impossible, the latter attributing it to user error. Experts in Whitfield County, Ga., where one version of the claim originated, said the voter in question’s ballot was replaced after they said it did not reflect their choice.

Full Fact Check: Dominion, election officials reject claims that Georgia machines are flipping votes

Claim: Misspelling of Donald Trump’s name on Ohio ballot could invalidate votes

Our Rating: False

A misprinted ballot would not invalidate votes, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections. The board also said it has not confirmed that the image of a misprinted ballot circulating online is genuine and has not directly received complaints about such errors.

Full Fact Check: Trump’s alleged misprint in Ohio could be a hoax, it wouldn’t affect the vote count

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