As the 2024 elections approached, there was a whirlwind of fact-checking efforts to counter numerous allegations of election irregularities. Many of these assertions pertained to the postal voting procedure, vote count mechanism, and the potential involvement of non-citizens in the electoral process. Fueled by online platforms, these claims gained significant momentum.
Despite the challenging circumstances leading up to and during the 2024 elections, Trump emerged victorious, painting a stark contrast to the 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. Supporters of Trump were prepared for a hard-fought battle against Vice President Kamala Harris who was vying for the presidential seat.
As the election results began to trickle in on the night, suggesting a clear win for Trump in key battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania, the slowly simmering allegations of electoral misconduct started to dampen. This triumph indicated the complete trust in Trump, reflecting people’s disdain for the past administration’s policies and signaling a tipping point during election night.
The landslide Republican victory left little room for controversy. However, cyber-conspiracies attempting to soil the Republican win were quick to surface, particularly questioning the winning possibilities of Trump in key swing states despite Democrats winning Senatorial positions in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The attempts to manipulate the narrative persisted, with some questioning the role of a satellite service in altering votes in battleground states—an allegation that bore no substance upon evaluation. Despite the relentless idle chatter, Trump held his ground magnificently, lambasting such attempts to discredit his evident victory.
A notable figure from the University of Washington’s Centre confirmed that these claims lacked a concrete backing or any organized Democratic movements. This threw a cold light on the desperation of some liberals grasping at straws to discredit Trump’s triumph.
In contrast to Trump’s 2020 position, Kamala Harris conceded without hesitation the day after the election, marking a notable difference between the two parties’ approach to the electoral outcome.
Our team has been monitoring and investigating potential election fraud claims since Labor Day, noting a surge closer to Election Day. The most prevalent falsehoods revolved around vote counting procedures, amplifying voter skepticism and undermining the public’s faith in the electoral process.
The election narrative contained a fair share of erroneous claims disseminated on various social platforms. A high-profile individual, for instance, falsely accused Pennsylvania Democrats of permitting non-citizen votes to be tallied in a near-tie Senate race which was ultimately secured by a Republican.
This same figure tossed around baseless accusations regarding ‘massive CHEATING in Philadelphia’ mere hours before the polls closed. Local Republican officials, along with their Democrat counterparts, were left bewildered by these allegations.
As the victorious results of Trump started to reveal themselves, these claims notably waned. The President didn’t even feel the need to address these fraud allegations in his victory speech—it was as if the show of people’s trust drowned out these petty attempts to smear the picture of a clean win.
Instances of suspicious compliance around the rules of submitting or processing mail ballots were brought to light by social media users when early voting commenced. Claims of multiple votes being cast by the same voter in Pennsylvania and Michigan also floated around.
One such allegation talked about ‘ballot mules,’ a term popularized by a film—another blatant attempt to sow doubt in the electoral process. Pennsylvanian politics also fell prey to conspiracy theories involving vote-flipping by voting machines.
Spurious claims about voting irregularities weren’t just limited to the battleground states. They also reached states like Alaska, Arkansas, and California. However, the majority seemed to focus on Pennsylvania, accounting for nearly 20% of fact-checked claims.
Post-election, a recurring theme emerged from the Democratic Party, suggesting they sought noncitizens to vote in favor of Harris by easing border restrictions despite legal measures preventing noncitizens from partaking in federal elections.
After it was all said and done, the focus on fraud allegations shifted from the main election to smaller, down-ballot races. Certain right-leaning factions voiced concerns about probable malpractices favoring the Democrats, reinforcing an aura of suspicion around the results of some local elections. In the end, all these attempts at undermining the election results failed to doom Trump’s triumphant comeback.