A look at false, misleading claims about the 2024 election

A VOTER IN Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, fills out her ballot for the Michigan primary on February 27. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)

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 there are more registered voters than eligible voters in Michigan, with ballots for former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania destroyed and a voter’s choice rejected. “turned” by a Dominion voting machine in Georgia.

Here’s a look at the facts —

Posts spread misinformation about Michigan’s voter rolls

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 voter registrations overall than eligible voters, that number includes 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 pledged 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 addressed to Michigan’s 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 to X and said: “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.

As of July 1, 2023, there were approximately 7.9 million eligible voters in Michigan. This figure is 500,000 fewer than the total number of registered voters – approximately 8.4 million. But that’s because the total number of registered voters includes 1.2 million inactive voters. Those labeled inactive have not voted or responded to a message confirming their residency for six consecutive years. Inactive voters can still vote.

Under state and federal law, voters 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.

More than 339,000 voter registrations will be canceled 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 by request. of the voter, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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 lawsuit was dismissed 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 — aside 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 co-chaired Michigan’s Election Security Advisory Commission.

Read the full fact check

-Melissa Goldin

A video of the destruction of Trump ballots in Pennsylvania has been fabricated

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 has identified the video as “fake” Thursday afternoon. And the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies said the video was “fabricated and strengthened” 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 reported this in a statement. The video was reported to the police.

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

Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia, chairman and vice chairman of the board, respectively, mentioned 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 undermine confidence in the upcoming elections.”

The campaign for foreign influence.

The FBI statement also warned that U.S. intelligence officials expect Russia to do so as well “Creating and releasing additional media content that aims to undermine confidence in the integrity of the elections and divide Americans” in the coming weeks.

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

The voting machines in Georgia do not flip votes

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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