Reports of ballot-counting and voting-machine problems in New York and Florida coincided with a surge in misleading voter-fraud claims on X during the early hours of Election Day. An analysis of TweetBinder data by social media data company Audiense found that posts mentioning words such as “cheat,” “steal” and “rig” exceeded 100 per minute during early voting hours.
Kate Starbird, a disinformation researcher and co-founder of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, said on social media that real problems and proposed solutions were being framed conspiratorially, with false suggestions that the malfunctions were deliberate.
In Westchester County, New York, ballot tabulators were not accepting ballots in the morning, according to County Executive Ken Jenkins. Election sites have procedures for such situations: completed ballots can be stored in designated bags or boxes and counted later. Republican Representative Claudia Tenney, who represents New York’s 24th Congressional District, alleged on X that Democrats in the state would “do anything and everything to cheat.”
Westchester County leans heavily Democratic, so voting difficulties there are more likely to affect Democratic voters, the report noted.
In heavily Democratic Broward County, Florida, problems with electronic voting machines were reported minutes after polls opened. Local news reports said some voters were turned away. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer asked on X why several states were suddenly experiencing ballot-counting issues and accused Democrats of cheating. Broward County backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by 17 percentage points in the 2024 election.
Sources: The New York Times Technology.