this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024

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171

Rumors, conspiracy theories, and disinformation about "millions of missing votes" and voting machine fraud (privacy.thenexus.today)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

60 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The reality is that it always takes time for some states to count all the votes; when these rumors started ramping up, there were over ten million uncounted ballots in California alone. But, many people don't know that this is how things always work. So, with emotions high in the aftermath of the election, disinformation purveyors are taking advantage of the opportunity to get well-intentioned people to help amplify conspiracy theories.

If you see allegations of "millions of missing votes" or voting machine fraud, please don't amplify them! Instead:

If it's somebody you know, send them a private message letting them know that they're unintentionally amplifying a false rumor.
If it's not somebody you know, report it to the moderators as disinformation.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 weeks ago (17 children)

I'm only wondering about the statistically improbable break between the state where they voted all Dems downballot but then swapped to Trump just for President.

This is so statistically unlikely, having one or two states this way would be improbable as hell, but (I am not claiming this is true) there are apparently many instances where this happened.

I'm not sharing any of this stuff I see but so far this is the one that got my eyebrow raised.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Missouri voted to legalize abortion again. Then elected the man who will get it banned nationally. Previously we voted to reduce dark money etc in local elections. And in the very next election repealed those restrictions again. People are fucking ignorant. Those in the state of misery doubly so.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I fully believe that the Rs pulled some sort of shady shit with ballots. For them 'every accusation is a confession' is an immutable law.

It doesn't matter, though, because the people who could do anything about it are on his team.

[–] Soulg 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Completely agree. They said for months they had a better plan, Trump and Johnson had their little secret, elections have taken days in the past several yet this one ends almost immediately.

I completely believe that it could be legit, but I absolutely think that they managed to do something. And as you said, doesn't fucking matter even if they did.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

elections have taken days in the past several yet this one ends almost immediately.

Not in the past several, in the last one where the whole country had pretty universal vote by mail abilities.

Now it takes a while to count the vote in places like California which still have universal vote by mail, and the returns are near instant in other areas that used the "voter fraud" narratives to eliminate or drastically scale back their vote by mail initiatives.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I had suggested to people before that if you are not going to vote for President, at least vote down the ballot for local people and don't discard the whole election. Voting Democrat but then for Trump does seem very odd.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

That actually makes a lot of sense. Trump didn't get significantly more votes than he got in 2020. Harris just got way less than Harris.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

It's true that downballot Dems ran ahead of Harris in most states. Why do you think it's statistically unlikely? Polls ahead of the election showed downballot Dems were more popular than Harris. Republicans focused most of their negative campaigning on Harris. Biden's very unpopular and she didn't try to distance herself from him (I'm not saying that she should have, I'm just observing that she didn't). Sexists and racists were less likely to vote for Harris.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's assuming that all Trump supporters vote down ballot. I've been reading that a non-negligable percentage of Trump voters just voted for president and left down ballot races blank. Considering Trump only won the swing states by tiny percentages, a small percentage of Trump voters leaving blank the rest is easily enough to sway it

For instance, if we look at Wisconsin senate, we see that Tammy Baldwin has almost exactly the same number of votes as Harris (only a couple hundred more), but Eric Hovde shows less substantially votes than Trump got

Results with ~99% reported:

Donald Trump: 1,697,769

Kamala Harris: 1,668,082

(And about 40k for third party)

Vs senate

Tammy Baldwin: 1,668,545 [+436 from Harris]

Eric Hovde: 1,641,181 [-56,615 from Trump]

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Just accept the fact that the elections were functioning as intended with some expected hiccups as they so have every big presidential election. I had to get my ballot cured in 2016, it wasn't a conspiracy, just people doing the best they can.

There's no massive voter fraud, no machines flipping their shit. Just shitty fucking Americans as per usual.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep. The only real election fuckery is fox news, christianity and russia poisoning people's minds.

[–] doomcanoe 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hey! Give Elon a little credit! He tried so hard!!!

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

This is ludicrous. If someone is claiming their vote has not been received or counted I'm absolutely going to amplify them and make sure they're contacting the proper authorities.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure, if it's somebody you know or trust who's saying this, then it's not disinformation; agreed about helping them contact election officials and/or other authorities, and if you think it's useful to amplify it, then I'm not trying to talk you out of it.

If it's not somebody you know or trust, then amplifying it is quite possibly helping out a disinformation campaign.

And in any case, amplifying individual claims is very different from the unsupported claims about "millions of missing votes", and that's what I am trying to talk people out of.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

So every single report of blue ballots being stolen and burned is just a lie then?

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[–] Varyk 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

"check to see if the information is accurate" is better advice.

All the way back to bush, conservatives were ramping up removing voting machines from minority and blue districts, purging voter registrations, challenging cosmetic scuffs on ballots, and they did the same thing this election.

votes being attacked and blocked definitely happened, and thousands of votes were blocked in most states that were perfectly legal, but it doesn't stop conservatives from challenging their validity.

it doesn't have to be labeled a "conspiracy" if it is a fact.

conservatives can't win purely on numbers anymore, so they focus on dividing and disqualifying democratic voters.

blocked legal ballots:

https://www.turnto23.com/politics/america-votes/pennsylvania-election-officials-tackling-challenges-to-mail-ballots

purged voter rolls:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-virginia-purge-noncitizens-voter-rolls-ahead-elec-rcna177673

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/politics/attempts-to-purge-voter-rolls-increase-as-election-nears/index.html

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

"check to see if the information is accurate" is better advice.

This is just great general advice for anything you read or post online. A misinformation tweet on Monday, spreads like wildfire on Tuesday, is looked at by professionals on Wednesday, a reasonable take or correction appears Thursday, and by Friday the only thing anyone remembers is the lie.

I'm reminded of "This Video Will Make You Angry" by CGP Grey, https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc

But you don't get likes or whatever by taking time to write out a well thought out opinion.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

"Right-wing influencers are positioning this unfounded claiming as"evidence" of election fraud in 2020"

JFC... If they did that before why the hell wouldn't they just do it again? I guess even the Democrats that "stole the election last time" just like Trump now? Much logic.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

It’s also worth mentioning that turnout percentage wise, 12m fewer votes is just 6-7%, and a turnout swing of that size is perfectly normal

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

People spent the last 4 years asking for proof in response for allegations of voter fraud and the only way to not normalize the concept of voter fraud is to continue to do just that. The only reasonable thing to do is just that.

Throughout America's history we've gotten through some pretty wild shit with nothing more than the fervent belief that the framework upon which our Republic is built can withstand the test of time so long as we are willing to defend it, and have faith that people like those were counting the votes, because most of them are

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the fervent belief that the framework upon which our Republic is built can withstand the test of time

Which it clearly can't. You don't need to be a genius to figure out that the founding fathers weren't the demigods they're usually portrayed as and thus weren't able to predict 21st century problems in the 1700s.

Especially since their mechanism for changing anything fundamental has been made impossible by polarization.

Like the whole "American Dream" and trickle down economics, you'd have to be asleep to still believe that it's working.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

so long as we are willing to defend it

You are correct in that the Constitution alone can't stand the test of time. In fact, I implied such.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No matter how willing you are to defend it, the 1700s system you're still operating on is broken. It was never designed to be static, much less anticipate 21st century conditions.

At this point, defending it rather than fighting for it to be replaced by something better is a big part of the problem.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

That's a different thing entirely. On topic:

Any constitutional oath is a directive that can be superceded by no man. If someone attempts to amend the constitution without ratification, we're bound by oath to not acknowledge such a change. If we're given orders that violate the consitution, we're bound by oath to not acknowledge those orders.

Ideally, nobody who made an oath to uphold the constitution will fuck with a ballot. They won't sieze land, they won't use force on or unlawfully detain civilians, none of that, and if push comes to shove that is a hill people will ideally fight and die on. Trump can't make us do a god damned thing if it means turning our back on the constitution. The buck stops there.

You can soapbox about how we need reform, but that's a different topic entirely

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Only conservatives are allowed to claim election fraud, even if the evidence is literally incontrovertible that republicans stole it. Nice

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

What's the evidence you find "literally incontrovertible"?

The comparison is apt though:

In 2020, almost all non-partisan voting rights organizations and election experts (as well as most Republicans, despite losing) were saying that there was in fact no evidence of widespread election fraud. So conservatives claiming election fraud were seen as conspiracy theorists who were spreading disinfo (either intentionally or because they really thought there was evidence).
In 2024, almost all non-partisan voting rights organizations and election experts (as well as most Democrats, despite losing) are saying that there was in fact no evidence of widespread election fraud. So ...

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I got in line to vote. It was a very short line.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I don't know why so many people are hurt by this statement. The turnout was abysmal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

One reason people might be annoyed by this is because it sounds like you don't realize how many people had to wait in four-hour long lines.

Anyhow, turnout wasn't abysmal, it looks like be down a bit from 2020's record numbers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for the perspective. I guess I got in at a good time, and I didn't hear any reports of long lines in my area.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, a lot depends on where you live. Check out these lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wmMobN4AVw And they're far from the worst! I just did a search on "four hour voting lines" and it happened in Chicago, New Jersey, UC Irvine, Northeast Ohio ...and that's just the first page of search results.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

A guilty conscience

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because all of you sick fuckers don't even keep your kids home when they go to school. Then I gotta share a common space with the same people? Nah. I'm good. I vote by mail so I don't get exposed to your cooties.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Man this election was so cooked it came with a side of fries and two sachets of ketchup fml

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How so?

I'm not picking I fight, I just want to know your thoughts on it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Well I’m not American and not any kind of political expert so take it with a pinch of salt. My suspicion is that the republicans put their fat greasy fingers on the scales to ensure victory. That’s certainly what it looks like from the outside. Everyone knew Dunlop turnip was going to win weeks in advance. Tim Cook et al meeting with him to discuss tariffs, Bezos trying to quash the Harris endorsement. The fix was in. Musk is literally a conman with a hotline to the worlds least surprising piss enthusiast Vladimir ~~illych~~ putin. It was cooked. Good and proper, top to bottom. Also election predictions guy put his reputation on the line to say Harris would win, and the only other time he’s been wrong is 2000 - less said the better. It’ll all come out.

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