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

There has been a steady stream of false and misleading information circulating online around the 2024 election. Since early voting began, there have been false reports that ballots for former President Donald Trump have been destroyed in Pennsylvania; more registered voters than eligible voters in Michigan; and a voter’s choice is “flipped” by a Dominion voting machine in Georgia.

Here’s a look at the facts.

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

THE FACTS: The Bucks County Board of Elections identified the video as “fake” Thursday afternoon.

“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. said in a statement. The video was reported to the police.

Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia, chairman and vice chairman respectively of the board of directors, called the video “dangerous disinformation” in a joint statement.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement Thursday evening that it and the Yardley Borough Police Department investigated the video and “concluded that this video was fabricated in an attempt to lose confidence in the upcoming election.” undermine.”

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

— Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

CLAIM: Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than eligible people, creating the potential for widespread fraud.

THE FACTS: Context is missing. While the state has more total voter registrations than eligible votersthat number including voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from the voter rolls under federal and state law. The number of active voters is far fewer than the number of eligible voters, and experts say there is no reason to believe there will be widespread fraud.

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-mail addressed to the Michigan Secretary of State. “You only plan to remove ineligible voters AFTER this election. That necessarily means that there are many more people registered to vote than there are eligible voters.”

Benson responded on X, which reads: “Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous misinformation. Here are the facts: There are no more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 eligible voters in our state. Musk uses a misleading figure, including 1.2 million inactive records that will be deleted by law.”

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

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

Below stands And federal lawvoters are removed from the voter rolls only after they receive notice that their registration may be canceled and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity. Voter registration cannot be canceled only if there is no vote.

This waiting period is the reason there are more registered voters overall than eligible voters in the state.

There are more than 339,000 voter registrations scheduled 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 potential changes of residency, 532,513 for deaths, and 16,716 at the voter’s request. according to his Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Republican National Committee and two individual voters has filed a federal lawsuit in March against Jonathan Brater, director of the Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections, for allegedly failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” The suit was fired Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, who said the plaintiffs had no legal standing and did not advance a plausible claim anyway.

Michigan is hardly the only state with large numbers of inactive voters. Every state – apart from the six that 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 high number of inactive voters is a sign of robust list maintenance, said David Becker, the founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, who served as co-chair of the Michigan State Council. Advisory Committee on Election Security.

Read the full fact check here.

-Melissa Goldin

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

THE FACTS: That’s not true. The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Registrars issued a news release on Oct. 19, noting that the case involved one of 6,000 ballots cast since early voting began on Oct. 15. The ballot was invalid and the voter cast a replacement which was counted. Officials said there was no problem with the voting machine.

Gabriel Sterling, Chief Operating Officer for Georgia’s Secretary of State, said every report they have seen so far of someone saying their printed ballot did not reflect their selections on the touchscreen voting machine was the result of voter error.

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

Whitfield County elections officials said in the news release that the voter noticed when viewing their printed ballot that it did not reflect their choice. A poll worker helped the voter mark his choice and cast his vote.

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

They noted that if there was reason to suspect the machine was at fault, it would be taken out of service. No machines have been taken out of service, county election officials said.

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.