FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims surrounding the 2024 election

A steady stream of false and misleading information is circulating online around the 2024 election. A Kentucky voting machine that registered a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris when the voter meant to select former President Donald Trump has been found to be user error, not fraud, according to officials in Laurel County, where the issue occurred. A video circulating widely on social media that shows a man who says he is a Haitian immigrant claiming he is planning to vote multiple times in Georgia is fake. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed on Friday that the video is the work of Russian influence creators.

Here’s a look at the facts.

User error cited as reason for Kentucky machine’s switch of vote for Trump to Harris

CLAIM: A video showing a ballot marking machine in Laurel County, Kentucky, that marks Vice President Kamala Harris when the voter tries to select former President Donald Trump is proof of fraud.

THE FACTS: That’s false. This was an isolated incident caused by user error, according to Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown. He wrote on Facebook that officials were able to recreate the incident when pressing the areas in between boxes with candidate’s names. But voters are supposed to press the middle of the box to make their selection.

The machine was taken out of service until the Kentucky attorney general’s office investigated, according to Brown, and its use has since resumed. He added that there have been no other complaints about the machine — before or after the incident — and that the voter in the video said she was able to cast a ballot for her preferred candidate.

In the video, someone off camera tries to vote for Trump by pressing a small square in the top-left corner of a larger box with his name. Harris’ name is highlighted in green on the seventh attempt, indicating that it has been selected instead.

Posts claiming that the video shows election interference received hundreds of thousands of likes and shares on multiple social media platforms.

Brown originally wrote Thursday afternoon that officials had been unable to recreate the incident and that the machine had been taken out of service, but left in full view, until a representative from the Kentucky attorney general’s office could investigate. He explained in a follow-up post about three hours later that the incident was replicated following the representative’s arrival, but could not be recreated more than once.

The follow-up post contained a video showing how voters should make their selection. The correct candidate’s name is highlighted in green when the middle of each box is pressed. In a third post on Friday, Brown shared a video of himself demonstrating the entire process of how to use a ballot marking machine correctly.

“Don’t go to the side and hit this tiny box in the side in the corner because it won’t work that way,” he cautions.

Voters only use the machine to create their ballot, which is then fed into a separate vote scanner. They are asked to confirm their selections before the ballot is printed. If a voter realizes they made a mistake after the ballot prints, Kentucky law allows them to spoil it and receive another. Each voter can spoil up to two ballots.

James Young, a former Louisville elections director, confirmed in an X post that the video “does not depict any fraudulent activity or ‘voting flipping.’”

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this item.

Video that claims to show a Haitian immigrant who plans to vote multiple times in Georgia is fake

CLAIM: A video shows a Haitian immigrant talking about how he’s intending to vote multiple times in two Georgia counties for Vice President Kamala Harris.

THE FACTS: The video is “obviously fake,” and likely the product of Russian trolls “attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election,” according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this election,” he said. He added that his office is working with federal and state partners, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to combat the disinformation and identify its origin.

Intelligence officials confirmed on Friday that the video was manufactured by “Russian influence actors” and was part of “Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

The intelligence community expects Russia, in the days before the election and weeks and months after, “to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” said the joint statement from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The 20-second video shows a man who describes himself as a Haitian immigrant with American citizenship who plans to vote multiple times in Georgia’s Gwinnett and Fulton counties. He flashes several purported Georgia IDs with different names and addresses.

An Associated Press analysis of the information on two of the IDs confirms it does not match any registered voters in Gwinnett or Fulton counties.

The video began circulating on the social media platform X on Thursday afternoon. The post that originally popularized it was no longer on X on Friday morning, but copycat versions were still being shared widely with false claims it showed election fraud.

The video’s style and method of dissemination is similar to other videos created by Storm-1516, also known as CopyCop, a known Russian disinformation network that has created several fake videos this election cycle, according to Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, who has researched the group.

“We know that Storm-1516, and Russia more broadly, has for many years been focused on undermining the legitimacy of our democratic process,” he wrote in an email. “This video fits with that goal.”

— Associated Press writers Ali Swenson and Melissa Goldin in New York, and Eric Tucker in Washington, contributed this report.

Video shows routine election operations in a Pennsylvania county, not voter fraud

CLAIM: A video of a man dropping off a large number of ballots at the courthouse in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, shows evidence of voter fraud.

THE FACTS: That’s false. Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure told The Associated Press that the video, which spread widely on X with several users actively trying to identify the man, showed nothing but routine election operations.

The man in the video is the local postmaster and was doing his job, dropping off ballots as instructed after collection, McClure said in an email. He noted that the misinformation led to unwarranted harassment against the postmaster.

“This is a postal service servant doing his public duty,” he said. “Folks should find out all the facts before they go sharing things online.”

The courthouse is surrounded by security cameras and other safeguards to ensure the election runs smoothly, McClure said.

The county executive replied to the original video on X, which was shared more than 14,000 times. A Community Note was placed on the post explaining the misrepresentation.

— Ali Swenson

Video shows a group seeking assistance for elderly and disabled members, not cutting line to vote in Pennsylvania

CLAIM: A video shows busloads of noncitizens skipping the line to vote at a satellite election office in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

THE FACTS: False. The video shows a group walking past a line at a satellite voting location in Allegheny County to seek assistance for elderly and disabled voters as they applied for mail-in ballots Saturday, Oct. 26, election officials said in a statement.

RELATED COVERAGE >>> Allegheny County election officials respond to viral video of voters in South Park

Officials noted that the deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania was Oct. 21, so anyone requesting a mail-in ballot after the deadline would have only received one if they were already registered to vote. Only U.S. citizens can register to vote in Pennsylvania.

In the video, a group of people walk up to the South Park Ice Rink office in the borough of Bethel Park and stop to speak with a woman outside the building.

“ILLEGAL ‘VOTERS’ CUTTING THE LINE AGAIN!” reads an X post that shared the video. “Look at this BS in Pennsylvania… swing states… it figures. BUSSES of non-english speaking ‘citizens’ are guided past Americans who had been waiting in line for hours to cast their early votes.”

As of Wednesday, the erroneous post had been liked and shared approximately 122,700 times.

The county’s statement explained that the group “came to apply for mail in ballots and needed the assistance of translators.”

The video shows a “brief conversation between voters, their translators, and a county employee.”

Elderly and disabled people from the group were told by the county employee to sit while they waited for their turn — an accommodation offered to any elderly and disabled voter at Allegheny County satellite offices — and able-bodied voters went to the back of the line, according to the statement. Translators helped those who needed them.

— Melissa Goldin

Woman in video shouting at a child outside a Houston rally is falsely identified

CLAIM: A video shows a former employee of the Harris County Democratic Party in Texas screaming at a small child outside of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Houston rally on Friday.

THE FACTS: That’s false. Social media users misidentified the woman in the video as Jordan Bowen, an organizing director for the county party from 2021 to 2023. The HCDP wrote in an Oct. 26 Facebook post that the woman in the video “is not and never has been” employed by HCDP or the Texas Democratic Party.

Bowen, who also worked as a fellow for HCDP from 2019 to 2020, told The Associated Press she attended the rally, but said she was unaware of any issue until friends started texting her, asking what was going on. Nasty messages, including death threats, quickly followed. Her mother’s address and work information were posted online.

In photos from the rally that Bowen shared with the AP, she looks nothing like the woman in the video. She is wearing a baggy gray shirt, glasses and a hat with “HOU” in rainbow letters. Her hair, worn down, is dark brown. The woman in the video is wearing a crop top, her hair is light brown and was braided into low pigtail buns. She is not wearing glasses.

The video shows a crowd of people gathered in the road next to the Houston Metro’s Shell Energy Station, the stop closest to the stadium where Harris held her rally. A woman in a cropped blue T-shirt and black shorts steps in front a young girl sitting in a stroller, bends over and shouts directly in her face. It is unclear what she said.

A woman nearby steps forward to intervene as a man holding a microphone lifts the girl out of the stroller. The woman who had been shouting then positions herself in front of the man and the girl. Using his microphone, the mans asks, “Are you ashamed at all?” to which she answers, “No.”

Several social media posts wrongly singled Bowen out as the alleged aggressor, using the video as an example of “typical” Democrat behavior. One TikTok video, captioned “Trump 2024,” that showed a screenshot of the video next to an actual photo of Bowen, had been viewed approximately 1.1 million times as of Tuesday.

Bowen said the viral misinformation has made her feel concerned for the safety of herself and her family. She is working with an attorney and considering legal action. She believes she was targeted because of her work with the Democratic Party, including efforts to get Democrats elected in Texas.

A statement released by Oxner Legha Law Firm, which is representing Bowen, said that the misinformation has caused “baseless threats to her safety, undue distress, and substantial harm to her reputation.” It called on those who shared it, including the social media platforms, to “issue prompt and prominent retractions.”

Derek Kelly, HCDP’s chief of staff, confirmed that Bowen previously worked for the party. He said its office was also flooded with nasty messages soon after the false posts emerged and that the calls were making it difficult for those with legitimate issues to get through. Armed security officers are making regular stops at the office given the violent nature of some messages.

“It’s a big impediment to our doing our job,” he said of the false claims. “It’s just completely fake, made up stuff.”

— Melissa Goldin

Video of Trump ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania was fabricated

CLAIM: A video shows ballots marked for Trump being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, while those for Vice President Kamala Harris were put back in their envelopes to be counted.

THE FACTS: The Bucks County Board of Elections identified the video as “fake” Thursday afternoon. And the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies said the video was “manufactured and amplified” by Russian actors.

“The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” the board said in a statement. The video was reported to law enforcement.

In a statement released late Friday, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the video is “part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia, chair and vice chair of the board, respectively, called the video “dangerous misinformation″ in a joint statement.

The Bucks County district attorney’s office said in an emailed statement Thursday evening that they and the Yardley Borough Police Department investigated the video and “concluded that this video was fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.”

The X user who popularized the inauthentic video has previously shared multiple narratives created by a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop, raising questions over whether it originated as part of a foreign influence campaign.

The FBI statement also warned that U.S. intelligence officials expect Russia will “create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans” in the coming weeks.

— Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson

Posts spread misinformation about Michigan’s voter rolls

CLAIM: Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than people eligible to vote, which creates the potential for widespread fraud.

THE FACTS: This is missing context. While the state does have more total voter registrations than eligible voters, that number includes voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from voter rolls under federal and state laws. The number of active voters is far less than those who are eligible to vote, and experts say there is no reason to believe that widespread fraud will result.

Still, numerous social media users suggested the numbers were proof that Michigan is trying to cheat in the 2024 election. Among them was billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who has committed at least $70 million in support of Trump.

“Jocelyn Michelle Benson, shame on you for blatantly lying to the public!” Musk wrote in an X post directed at Michigan’s secretary of state. “You only plan to remove ineligible voters AFTER this election. That necessarily means that there are far more people registered to vote than there eligible voters.”

Benson responded on X, stating: “Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous disinformation. Here are the facts: There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state. Musk is pushing a misleading number that includes 1.2 million inactive records slated for removal in accordance with the law.”

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

There were approximately 7.9 million people of voting age in Michigan as of July 1, 2023. This figure is 500,000 fewer than the total registered voters — approximately 8.4 million. But that’s because the total registered voters include 1.2 million voters who are inactive. Those labeled inactive have not voted for six consecutive years or have not responded to a notice confirming their residency. Inactive voters are still eligible to vote.

Under state and federal law, voters are only removed from voter rolls after they have been sent a notice that their registration is subject to cancellation and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity. Voter registration cannot be canceled only because of a failure to vote.

This waiting period is why there are more total registered voters than eligible ones in the state.

More than 339,000 voter registrations are slated for cancellation in 2025 and more than 257,000 in 2027. As of March 2024, Michigan had canceled more than 800,000 voter registrations since 2019, including 273,609 for possible changes of residency, 532,513 for deaths and 16,716 at the request of the voter, according to its Department of State.

The Republican National Committee and two individual voters filed a federal lawsuit in March against Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater for allegedly failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” The suit was dismissed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, who said the plaintiffs lacked legal standing and, regardless, did not state a plausible claim.

Michigan is hardly the only state with large numbers of inactive voters on its rolls. Every state — aside from the six which are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act — must send voters a cancellation notice and wait two federal election cycles before removing inactive voters.

The large number of inactive voters is a sign of robust list maintenance, according to David Becker, the founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, who served as a co-chair on Michigan’s Election Security Advisory Commission.

Read the full fact check here.

— Melissa Goldin

Georgia voting machines are not flipping votes

CLAIM: A Dominion voting machine in Whitfield County, Georgia, flipped a vote to a candidate not marked by the voter.

THE FACTS: That’s false. The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Registrars issued a press release Oct. 19, noting the case involved one voter out of 6,000 ballots cast since early voting began Oct. 15. The ballot was spoiled, and the voter cast a replacement that was counted. Officials said there was no problem with the voting machine.

Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said every report they’ve seen so far of someone saying their printed ballot didn’t reflect their selections on the touchscreen voting machine has been a result of voter error.

The statements followed a post by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed on X that a voting machine had changed a voter’s ballot in her Georgia district during early voting. She later updated her post to include a statement from county election officials explaining what happened and thanking them for resolving the issue.

Whitfield County election officials said in the press release that the voter noticed when reviewing their printed ballot that it didn’t reflect their choice. A poll worker assisted the voter in marking their choice and casting their vote.

“Georgia law allows voters to spoil their printed ballot if they make the wrong selection on the ballot marking device. If a voter requests to change their selections, they are immediately given a new opportunity to make and print the correct choice,” officials said.

They noted that if there was reason to suspect that the machine made an error it would be taken out of service. No machines were taken out of service, county election officials said.

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