CNN
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False claims and conspiracy theories about voting and the election course of swirled on social media as People solid their ballots on Tuesday.
The disinformation was pushed by Republicans. Former President Donald Trump and different distinguished right-wing figures seized on technical issues in some key states to baselessly recommend there had been intentional malfeasance. Trump additionally made a baseless declare of mass voter fraud.
Here’s a take a look at among the early false and deceptive claims. This text might be up to date as CNN fact-checks extra claims.
Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely alleged that there was mass voter fraud within the 2020 election, baselessly recommended on social media on Tuesday that such fraud is likely to be occurring within the 2022 midterms.
“Identical factor is occurring with Voter Fraud as occurred in 2020???” the previous president wrote Tuesday afternoon on his Reality Social platform.
There was no evidence of widespread or outcome-changing voter fraud within the 2020 election, and there was no early signal on Tuesday of any vital voter fraud within the 2022 midterms. Voter fraud sometimes represents a tiny fraction of ballots solid in US elections.
Trump made his Tuesday declare amid a sequence of social media posts wherein he complained about assorted technical difficulties in some states. There was no proof that any of those points concerned intentional malfeasance, not to mention “voter fraud.”
–Daniel Dale
Maricopa County, probably the most populous county in Arizona, has tweeted a debunking of a distinguished Republican character’s false Election Day declare about voting wait occasions.
Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of right-wing group Turning Level USA, tweeted Tuesday to his 1.8 million followers: “2 hour wait minimal at most polling locations in Maricopa. Democrats operating elections right here knew this could occur. Site visitors jam by design. DONT LET THEM DO 2020 AGAIN. WAIT IN LINE AND VOTE.”
The tweet was completely inaccurate.
Maricopa County’s elections aren’t run by Democrats: its elections chief, Recorder Stephen Richer, and its Board of Supervisors chairman, Bill Gates, are each Republicans. And the county’s on-line wait-times tracker showed that dozens of voting places there had waits of underneath 5 minutes, together with many with no waits in any respect. County voters are permitted to solid their ballots at whatever location they choose.
Maricopa County did expertise Election Day technical problems with tabulation units at about 20% of its voting places, in line with county officers on Tuesday morning. The issue prompted officers to ask affected voters to put their poll in a safe field for counting, look forward to the tabulator issues to be resolved, or go vote at one other county location. (Richer issued an afternoon statement saying the Board of Supervisors had recognized the issue and had “begun fixing affected voting places.” He promised that “each authorized vote might be tabulated.”)
However there was no indication of intentional malfeasance.
Maricopa County said in its tweet in response to Kirk’s tweet: “No a part of the tweet under is correct. The overwhelming majority of Vote Facilities are seeing wait occasions underneath half-hour, and whether or not by tabulator or safe poll field, all voters are being served.”
–Daniel Dale
Conspiracy theorists are warning voters to “examine for WiFi” community names and connections inside and outdoors of their polling places, a brand new iteration of the debunked conspiracy that voting machines are linked to the web and may change votes remotely.
“Verify for Wifi connections, each inside & exterior ballot places. Election machines shouldn’t be linked to the Web. Take a screenshot to report irregularities for investigation,” learn one tweet.
The calls on social media websites akin to Telegram and Twitter echo earlier debunked conspiracy theories that voting machines are linked to the web, thus permitting for tampering by third-party saboteurs or election officers to vary votes from one candidate to a different.
In actuality, “voting machines” that truly mark ballots should not sometimes immediately linked to the web, regardless of cries from election conspiracy theorists. The bigger voting methods could be linked to the web, usually to make use of the election administration software program used to program machines and to check them, however that is imagined to happen before voting.
Polling places in lots of states use WiFi to entry digital ballot books to confirm voter eligibility.
On Tuesday, there have been isolated incidents of those electronic poll books – laptops utilized by election employees to make sure voters are registered – not working at polling websites in Detroit, Michigan, due to laptop points, however it didn’t stop any voters from voting.
“Voting machines” that truly mark ballots should not sometimes immediately linked to the web. However the supporting items that make up the voting course of could be – like election administration software program that’s used to program voting machines beforehand.
–Em Steck and Olivia Alafriz
Trump urged followers to “protest,” and the GOP nominee for Michigan secretary of state falsely claimed “fraud” was responsible for what officers referred to as a “innocent knowledge error” in Detroit.
By the point Trump weighed in, the Michigan Division of State had already addressed what occurred at choose polling locations in Detroit and mentioned a decision had been recognized. That repair was despatched to precincts by 11 a.m.
Even when the state of affairs was nonetheless being reviewed, “voters have been all the time in a position to vote,” Michigan Division of State spokesperson Jake Rollow instructed reporters Tuesday. “At no level was any, was there any lack of ability to course of a voter who confirmed up,” he mentioned.
Rollow mentioned there have been a “couple experiences” of remoted points with e-poll books at some precincts in Detroit. E-poll books are laptops which have a static obtain of the voter registration record, Rollow mentioned. When voters arrive at their polling place, election employees examine them in on an e-poll ebook to make sure they’re registered, in the best precinct, and haven’t already voted absentee. Polling websites have onerous copy paper backups to examine in voters, Rollow mentioned.
The Metropolis of Detroit Division of Elections defined in a press release that some e-poll books confirmed an incorrect message that learn, “Poll # has already been issued as Absentee Voter Poll,” on account of a “innocent knowledge error,” however that didn’t imply anybody was trying to vote twice.
Regardless, Kristina Karamo, the GOP nominee for Michigan secretary of state, falsely tweeted that there was “fraud” and a “crime” happening.
And Trump falsely mentioned on his Reality Social account, “the Absentee Poll state of affairs in Detroit is REALLY BAD. Persons are exhibiting as much as Vote solely to be instructed, ‘sorry, you’ve already voted.’ That is occurring in giant numbers, elsewhere as nicely. Protest, Protest, Protest!”
Rollow defined that generally the identical numbers are used for in-person and absentee ballots as a result of they’re separate units of ballots, and the expertise is meant to disregard it.
If ballot employees encountered the problem, they have been instructed to mark a poll with an ‘X’ to clarify that the poll was issued in individual, he mentioned.
Some voters who have been affected earlier within the morning got a provisional poll, Rollow mentioned. These provisional ballots might be counted as in the event that they have been normal ballots and the voters should not have to take any extra motion, he mentioned.
“The protections have been already and all the time in place to guard anybody from voting twice,” Rollow mentioned later within the afternoon, including that it “couldn’t have occurred on this state of affairs.”
–Annie Grayer and Nicki Brown
A Wisconsin election official shot down claims made on social media suggesting a ballot employee proven in a information clip was inappropriately filling out ballots.
The person appeared in footage of a polling heart aired on a Fox Information present, sitting at a desk with a stack of ballots in entrance of him, wanting back and forth as he flipped by the pages and made marks on the paperwork along with his pen.
Folks on social media referred to as out the person’s actions, questioning whether or not he was doing one thing unlawful.
However the county clerk in Dane County, Wisconsin, instructed CNN that he regarded into the incident and decided that the person pictured within the video was a ballot employee who was initialing and indicating the ward quantity on the again of the ballots, in preparation for the ballots to be handed out to voters.
“This course of is required by regulation and is a part of the examine and stability course of,” Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell mentioned in an electronic mail.
Some posts on social media concerning the video clip additionally erroneously suspected that the incident occurred at a Philadelphia election heart, however a spokesperson for Philadelphia County confirmed to CNN that it didn’t happen at a polling location within the metropolis.
– Blake Ellis
