Look at the truth: Did 20 million Democratic votes 'disappear'? | 2024 US Election News

When Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020, many Republicans – including Trump – made unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. Now, following the loss of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, some of her liberal supporters are taking to social media to allege fraud.

“I spent my first job in computer security for the Navy and the NSA,” wrote Wayne Madsen, an author known for spreading conspiracy theories, in a November 6 Threads post. “I am beginning to believe that our elections were heavily hacked as happened a few weeks ago in the Republic of Georgia. Think Elon Musk, StarLink, Peter Thiel, [Steve] Bannon, [Michael] Flynn again [Vladimir] Phuthini. The 20 million votes of the Democratic Alliance do not disappear by themselves.”

Another poster discouraged Harris from conceding the election, similarly alleging election fraud. “20 million less votes than the last election? 14 million more votes for Trump over Harris? Trump and those around him were very confident that Trump would win,” read a Threads post dated November 6. “We need an investigation. This election was stolen.”

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These claims are not accurate. There are no credible allegations of electoral fraud or evidence of missing votes in the 2024 election.

On November 6, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said election officials were still counting votes and there were no incidents of security breaches at the polls.

“As we have said many times, our election infrastructure has never been more secure and the election community has never been better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free and fair elections to the American people,” Easterly said. “This is what we saw yesterday in the peaceful and secure exercise of the will of the people. Importantly, we have no evidence of any malicious activity that has impacted the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”

Similarly, Ishan Mehta, director of media and democracy at Common Cause, a civil rights group, said the 2024 elections were safe, secure and “smooth”.

He said Common Cause has thousands of volunteers in all 50 states who monitor elections at polling stations and vote counting centers. This group also has a team that monitors voting issues on social media.

As a result, Common Cause knows when election problems arise – and those incidents usually end up being “some sort of machine or human error that we have plans to fix”, Mehta said.

Such incidents do not mean that “the election was hacked, or there was a malicious act to change any real votes of the American people”, he said.

“There is no evidence of any disappearing votes,” or other fraudulent activities during the 2024 elections, Mehta said. He also said he knew of no evidence of attempts – let alone successful attempts – to “hack” or “steal” the election.

Even if such efforts are possible, they will fail, experts say.

“No 'criminal' can change the outcome of the election or change the number of votes,” Mehta said. “Each state has its own independent, unconnected systems,” and election workers are trained to manage elections and fix any problems that arise and take that responsibility seriously.

The number of 2024 voters is still being counted, but the turnover does not indicate fraud, experts say.

Experts have repeatedly told PolitiFact that voter turnout fluctuates from election to election.

Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College, said factors such as enthusiasm for candidates, campaign efforts and electoral competition all contribute to voter turnout.

“If the final results show that 20 million fewer votes were cast for the Democratic Alliance president in 2024 than in 2020, that shows that 20 million voters decided not to vote, or not at all, or. don't check out the top competition,” said Gronke. “That's how the story ends.”

Denial of elections is anti-democratic, said David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works with election officials from both political parties to build trust in elections.

“We will know the total number of voters once the votes are certified by the states, in a few weeks,” he told PolitiFact. Becker pointed to data from the University of Florida: “We're on track to have the second-highest turnout in US history, and the second- or third-highest percentage of 18-year-olds given the right to vote.” vote,” he said.

As of 4:00 p.m. on November 7, Trump had received 72.8 million votes and Harris received an estimated 68 million votes. In 2020, Trump received 74.2 million votes and President Joe Biden received 81.2 million.

“Election officials, election monitors, election attorneys, partial observers, nonpartisan observers, and election science experts like myself pay close attention to elections at all levels,” Gronke said. “There have been reports that there have been a few errors in scattered areas. There is absolutely no evidence of anything fraudulent, certainly not to the extent suggested here.”

Our decision

The series posted alleged electoral fraud and claimed that 20 million Democratic Alliance votes “disappeared” in 2024.

Election experts and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have reported that there is no evidence of disappearing votes or widespread fraud during the 2024 presidential election.

It is normal for voter turnout to fluctuate from election to election, experts say.

We weigh these claims Pants On Fire!