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Four viral claims about voting fraud checked
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Four viral claims about voting fraud checked

Voting booths in the USA

(BBC)

While millions of people vote in the US elections, claims questioning the accuracy of the votes are spreading on the internet.

Election officials quickly denied some accusations of voting fraud and clarified some legitimate issues that were taken out of context.

BBC Verify monitors and investigates the most widely shared claims; here are four of them.

1) Viral claim about markings on ballot papers

An image on social media shows a person holding a mail-in ballot that already has a sign next to Kamala Harris’ name.

The person who posted this on X claims that voting for someone else will invalidate the ballot.

A post viewed more than 3 million times said the photo showed “weird voting shenanigans going on.”

voting in kentuckyvoting in kentucky

(BBC)

BBC Verify contacted the Kentucky Board of Elections, which denied the claim.

He said 130,000 ballots have been mailed so far and he has not been made aware of any complaints about mail-in ballots containing pre-printed markings in any candidate selection boxes.

“Since no one has submitted a pre-marked ballot to election administrators or law enforcement, the claim that at least one ballot in Kentucky may have a pre-printed marker currently exists only in the void of social media,” he said.

The election board added that if more than one candidate’s choice is marked in ink during mail-in voting in Kentucky, the ballot will still be counted as long as the voter circles their preferred choice.

2) Claim regarding absentee ballots for military service

a post claiming “Pentagon reportedly failed to send absentee ballots to active military members before election” was viewed more than 28 million times.

It refers to a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Written by three Republican members of CongressHe expressed “serious concern” about “deficiencies” in procedures for voting by overseas military personnel.

But the letter does not accuse the Pentagon of not sending them absentee ballots.

It’s not the Pentagon’s job to do this; Military personnel can vote abroad. Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) and their ballots are sent to them by the election authorities in the USA where they are registered.

If there is a danger that the ballot will not arrive before the voting deadline, staff can vote using what is called Federal Absentee Balloting (FWAB).

The letter alleges that an unspecified number of “service members” requested FWAB but were told they were out of base. However, it is possible to download and sign one. FVAP’s website.

We asked the Ministry of Defense for details on how many people were affected by this issue, but the ministry did not comment. He said he has trained 3,000 Voting Assistance Officers to support staff in voting.

3) ‘Illegal voter’ claim in Pennsylvania

Officials in the US state of Pennsylvania have denied claims that “illegal voters” were able to apply to vote and vote at an election office in Allegheny County.

They published a statement After posts on X went viralIt claims to show that “illegal voters” were being funneled past US voters waiting in line.

Allegheny County officials told the BBC the group was there to apply for a mail-in ballot. He also reiterated that only US citizens can register to vote.

It is illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, and Research shows that such cases are extremely rare.

4) The claim about the voting machine in Kentucky

A video has gone viral showing someone repeatedly trying and failing to vote for Donald Trump at a voting machine in Laurel County, Kentucky, before a vote appeared next to Kamala Harris’ name.

The person who posted says: “I typed Trump’s name 10 times and it didn’t work. Then I started recording and you can see what happened…. I turned it to Harris.”

Another post, viewed nearly seven million times, includes a video claiming: “Voting machines in Kentucky are literally switching votes from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris. This is election interference!”

Voting machine screen in KentuckyVoting machine screen in Kentucky

(BBC)

Election officials confirmed the video was real and that the machine malfunctioned, but said it was an isolated incident and voters were able to vote the way they wanted.

“After a few minutes of trying to recreate the scenario, this happened. This was accomplished by tapping on an area between the boxes. “We tried to do it again for a few minutes after that, but we couldn’t do it,” he said.

The machine in question was taken out of use until it could be inspected, and the county clerk filed a lawsuit later in the day. He posted a video on Facebook It shows that the machine is working correctly.

“There are always going to be some issues in an election of this scale,” said Joseph Greaney, a voting expert at US election website Ballotpedia.

“It may be one or two machines but people are turning them into bigger problems, but I can say with great confidence that these are isolated incidents and they have been caught,” he added.

BBC Verification logoBBC Verification logo

(BBC)

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