False Voter Fraud Allegations
During the 2016 election, Mr. Trump claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud would occur. After he won the presidency but lost the popular vote, he claimed, again without proof, that millions of undocumented immigrants had cast ballots.
In the real world, voter fraud is exceedingly rare, but you can expect rumors to fly on Election Day anyway. In Brazil, which held its presidential election last month, viral rumors and hoaxes on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp claimed to show evidence of widespread voter fraud.
These hoaxes are often meant to undermine an election’s integrity and delegitimize the winners. Unless you witness indisputable evidence of voter fraud, it’s best to ignore these claims.
Tips for Checking Misinformation, and What to Do if You Spot Some
Your job on Tuesday is not to debunk misinformation, it’s to vote! Still, there are things you can do to quickly check the authenticity of any information you find.
Whenever possible, it’s best to rely on official government websites for voting-related information. (Look for the .gov at the end of the website address.) The New York Times published a guide to figuring out how, where and when to vote on Tuesday. There are also several sites, including Vote411 and BallotReady, that provide independent and nonpartisan voter information.
Before sharing a viral story on Election Day that looks suspicious, check a fact-checking website such as Snopes or FactCheck.org first, to see if it has been debunked. If it is a photo, try doing a reverse image search using a website like TinEye to see if the photo is old or mislabeled, or if it has been manipulated.
If you witness voter intimidation, you can tell a poll worker, or report it via the Election Protection Hotline, which is administered by the nonpartisan group Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: 1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (in Spanish). You can also report it to the Justice Department’s voting rights hotline: 1-800-253-3931.
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