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Molly Butler / Media Matters

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Right-wing media are already trying to undermine the election results in Pennsylvania with baseless claims of voter fraud

Written by Payton Armstrong & Jack Winstanley

Research contributions from Jack Wheatley

Published

Following baseless claims made by former President Donald Trump that “Really bad ‘stuff’” is happening in Pennsylvania and the state “is cheating,” right-wing and far-right media figures are sowing early doubts about Pennsylvania’s electoral processes. Right-wing and far-right media figures have claimed without evidence that “Democrat activists” have been “caught posing as election workers in Pennsylvania,” that elections officials are attempting to “push people out of line,” that a postal worker dropping off “an Obscene amount of Ballots” is evidence of suspicious activity, and that Democrats are committing voter fraud.

As these baseless claims spiral, county election officials in Pennsylvania are reassuring voters that the election is secure and people have not been denied their right to vote.

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  • As early voting ends, Trump and his allies attempt to sow doubts about Pennsylvania’s election process and suggest that “Pennsylvania is cheating”

    • On Truth Social, Trump claimed that “Really bad ‘stuff’” is happening in Pennsylvania, citing batches of voter registration applications received by York County and Lancaster County and declaring “Law Enforcement must do their job.” He posted: “Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group. This is on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad 'stuff.' WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!” [Truth Social, 10/28/24]
    • In another Truth Social post, Trump baselessly claimed that “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before.” He urged his followers to “REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES” and again declared that “Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” [Truth Social, 10/30/24]
    • The Trump campaign and Republican Sen. candidate Dave McCormick filed a lawsuit against Bucks County after some voters tried to participate in the county's mail ballot voting on demand process allegedly faced long lines and were turned away. On October 30, a judge ruled that the county violated Pennsylvania election code and extended the deadline until the close of business on November 1. [CBS News, 10/30/24]
    • Trump is expected to seize on the length of time it takes Pennsylvania to count ballots in order to cast doubt on the results. Final results in the state are expected to take days because, following the 2020 election, Republicans in the state blocked reforms that would allow elections officials to begin counting mail-in ballots before Election Day. According to Rolling Stone, Trump in “private conversations with close allies and advisers in recent months, has stressed that ‘you gotta call them out very early in the process, like that night, otherwise they can get away with it and cover their tracks.’” [Rolling Stone, 10/15/24]
    • Notably, dozens of elections officials in Pennsylvania have signaled a willingness to help Trump's efforts to sow election chaos. As reported by Rolling Stone, there are “at least 33 county officials throughout Pennsylvania who have expressed belief in Donald Trump’s nonstop election lies or supported policies rooted in election denialism,” and “at least 23 of these officials are county election board members.” The magazine reported that the others “sit on county councils or commissions, which have some authority over election matters.” Rolling Stone noted that “these officials’ duties include certifying results and deciding whether to count mail-in ballots that could contain errors — ballots that are expected to be overwhelmingly submitted by Democratic voters.” [Rolling Stone, 10/29/24]

  • The reality: Some early voters faced long lines, several Pennsylvania counties are investigating deliveries of large batches of registrations, which is “not unusual,” and a woman was arrested at a polling location for being “belligerent”

    • York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying that the local elections and voter registration office had received a large delivery of election-related materials, which is “not unusual,” and it is “carefully processing them.” Wheeler said that “It’s not unusual to get large stacks of voter registrations or large stacks of requests for mail-in ballots, it’s just this was an overabundance of registrations from one particular organization.” She also said, “We’re in a phase now where we need to do our homework before we go and make accusations when we don’t have the data to back it up.” [Fox 43, 10/28/24; York Daily Record, 10/29/24]
    • Lancaster County officials said that they are investigating a large batch of voter registration forms suspected of being fraudulent, but reiterated that the fact that the forms were flagged indicates that the “systems worked” and that the election is secure. The suspect forms were dropped off at the county's board of elections office on two different occasions. [NPR, 10/25/24]
    • Per CNN’s Zachary Cohen: “Officials from Delaware County, Pennsylvania are pushing back on claims from the Trump campaign & the RNC that ‘voter suppression’ occurred after an incident Monday at a local polling site -- saying a woman was removed because she was ‘disruptive, belligerent, and attempting to influence voters waiting in line.’” “Her behavior prompted several complaints from those in line. Delaware County Park Police—who provide security for the Government Center Building—were on-site and responded promptly to the disturbance,” a statement from the county spokesperson said. [Twitter/X, 10/29/24, 10/29/24]
    • The Pennsylvania Department of State is pushing back against claims that long lines are evidence of voter suppression of early voters in Bucks County. The office said on X (formerly Twitter): “Earlier today, we spoke with Bucks County election officials who assured us that every registered voter who goes to their county election office by 5 p.m. today will be provided an opportunity to apply for their mail ballot.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; CBS Philadelphia, 10/30/24, 10/30/24]
    • Pennsylvania officials reportedly debunked a viral video from a QAnon social media account that claimed to show illegal ballot harvesting in Northampton County. Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said that the video showed the acting postmaster lawfully bringing ballots into the election office. NBC was able to verify the identity of the man in the video from a photograph posted on a USPS website. [NBC News, 10/30/24]

  • Right-wing media figures are pushing baseless claims about supposed voter fraud, suppression, and intimidation in Pennsylvania

    • Right-wing commentator George Behizy wrote that “it's becoming evident to me that Election Fraudsters wanted to cheat in the 2024 election by bloating the voter rolls with dubious names and requesting mail-in ballots using those names,” citing the batches of voter registration applications in York and Lancaster counties. [Twitter/X, 10/28/24; Wired, 10/3/24]
    • The Gateway Pundit’s report on the potentially fraudulent registration applications in York County included Behizy’s post claiming that “Election Fraudsters wanted to cheat in the 2024 election.” [The Gateway Pundit, 10/29/24]
    • The Federalist reported that “at least four Pennsylvania county election offices — Lancaster, York, Monroe, and Cambria — are setting aside suspicious and possibly fraudulent voter registration and mail-in ballot requests.” The report does also note that York County Chief Clerk Gregory Monskie “cautioned against using the word ‘fraud’ to describe any ballots or voter registration forms, even if some prove to be illegitimate. Sometimes people who are already registered register again, not realizing they don’t need to register yearly, he said.” [The Federalist, 10/29/24]
    • On X, Trump campaign political director James Blair posted a video purportedly shot at a polling location in Bucks County claiming that election officials are coming out to “push people out of line and tell them to come back,” though none of that seems to occur in the video. In the post, Blair also wrote, “Voter suppression!” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24]
    • In another post, Blair posted a photo and wrote: “⁦⁦@TheDemocrats are running around in Bucks County, PA with badges trying to pretend like they are elections officials. These people are not officials. Intimidation tactics!” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24]
    • The Gateway Pundit amplified Blair’s accusations, with the outlet calling it “election interference” and saying that “Democrat Thugs” had been “Caught Posing as Election Officials in Pennsylvania While Officials ‘Shove Voters Out of Line.’” Gateway Pundit's article claimed that the “Trump campaign has uncovered disturbing news on voting in Pennsylvania that suggests strong voter suppression efforts by the Democrats are underway.” [The Gateway Pundit, 10/29/24]
    • Right-wing X influencer Chuck Callesto shared Blair’s video, saying, “BREAKING NOW: Bucks County, PA election officials purportedly PUSHING PEOPLE OUT OF LINE, telling them to come back later.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24]
    • Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec posted on X an image allegedly of “ANOTHER DEMOCRAT ILLEGALLY POSING AS AN ELECTION OFFICIAL IN BUCKS COUNTY PA.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 10/30/24]
    • Right-wing personality Juanita Broaddrick posted an image of two individuals to X, claiming they were “Democrat activists caught posing as election workers in Pennsylvania.” [Twitter/X, 10/30/24]
    • Collin Rugg, a co-founder of right-wing site Trending Politics, shared a video alleging that police in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, “are refusing to let people vote.” Rugg credits the video to an X user with the QAnon-linked slogan “WWG1WGA” in the account bio, along with “FREE J6ERS!” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24, accessed 10/30/24]
    • Brandon Matlack, the regional coordinator for Early Vote Action, a voter registration operation run by far-right activist Scott Presler, posted a video of a man supposedly “dropp[ing] off an insane amount of ballots who says he’s with the post office but idk if I buy that. He wouldn’t talk to us and was acting very suspect.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; Media Matters, 3/21/23]
    • QAnon account MJTruthUltra posted a video purporting to show a “Man Spotted Dropping off an Obscene amount of Ballots at Northampton, PA last minute.” The post, which has been debunked by NBC News, added, “Might be a logical explanation.. but see something, say something. It should at least be followed up on by local officials.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; NBC News, 10/30/24]
    • Far-right podcaster Ann Vandersteel, who has promoted conspiracy theories, claimed that in Pennsylvania, “BUSSES of non-english speaking ‘citizens’ are guided past Americans who had been waiting in line for hours to cast their early votes.” She added: “These people, all wearing Harris Walz stickers, were directed through the voting process by a handful of ‘translators.’” [Twitter/X, 10/29/24; Daily Beast, 1/23/19; Media Matters, 7/26/24]
    • In a second post, Vandersteel posted “ELECTION FRAUD ALERT” and claimed polling places “ONLY … IN REPUBLICAN AREAS” were being shut down, accusing Democrats of cheating. She cited incidents in two Bucks County towns, Quakertown and Doylestown, writing, “They cheated in 2020 and Americans got stuck with SENILE JOE for 4 years. Now theyre trying to CHEAT TRUMP OUT OF HIS MUCH DESERVED SECOND TERM AGAIN!” [Twitter/X, 10/30/24]
    • On X, Shadow of Ezra, an account which has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, posted a video of an unnamed woman who claims she lives in Pennsylvania and the “secrecy envelope” and “external mailing envelope” for her mail-in ballot were sent to her “already sealed.” Shadow of Ezra wrote, “It’s not just Georgia’s Dominion voting systems raising red flags—according to this woman, mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania are arriving already sealed, making them look tampered with and disqualifying them from being counted if you try to open them. Even the outer envelope was sealed.” [Twitter/X, 10/18/24; Media Matters, 5/6/24]