A look at false and misleading claims about the 2024 election – NBC10 Philadelphia

Leading up to the 2024 elections, there is a constant stream of false and misleading information circulating online. A woman who was shown on video shouting at a young girl in a stroller outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday has been falsely identified in social media posts that have gone viral. She is not a former employee of the Harris County Democratic Party.

Here’s a look at the facts.

A woman in a video screaming at a child outside a rally in Houston has been falsely identified

CLAIM: Video shows a former Harris County, Texas Democratic Party staffer shouting at a young child outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday.

FACTS: This is not true. Social media users misidentified the woman in the video as Jordan Bowen, the district party’s 2021-2023 organizing director. In an Oct. 26 Facebook post, HCDP wrote that the woman in the video “is not and never has been” employed by HCDP or the Texas Democratic Party.

Bowen, who also worked as an HCDP fellow in 2019-20, told the Associated Press that she was present at the rally but said she was not aware of any issue until friends began texting her asking what is happening. Nasty messages quickly followed, including death threats. Her mother’s address and job information were published online.

In photos from the rally Bowen shared with the AP, she looks nothing like the woman in the film. He wears a baggy gray shirt, glasses, and a hat with the rainbow letters “HOU” on it. Her hair, damaged, is dark brown. The woman in the video is wearing a crop top and her hair is light brown and is tied in a low bun. She doesn’t wear glasses.

The video shows a crowd of people gathered on the road next to the Houston Metro’s Shell Energy station, the stop closest to the stadium where Harris held her rally. A woman in a short blue T-shirt and black shorts stands in front of a young girl sitting in a stroller, bends down and shouts in her face. It’s not clear what she said.

A woman standing nearby steps forward to intervene while a man holding a microphone pulls the girl out of the stroller. The woman who was screaming then stands in front of the man and the girl. Using a microphone, the man asks, “Are you ashamed at all?” to which she replies, “No.”

Several social media posts wrongly identified Bowen as the alleged aggressor, using the video as an example of “typical” Democratic behavior. One TikTok video titled “Trump 2024,” which showed a screenshot of the video alongside an actual photo of Bowen, had been viewed about 1.1 million times on Tuesday.

Bowen said the viral misinformation made her fear for the safety of herself and her family. He is working with a lawyer and is considering taking legal action. She believes she was targeted because of her work with the Democratic Party, including efforts to elect Democrats in Texas.

A statement issued by the law firm Oxner Legha, which represents Bowen, said the misinformation caused “unfounded threats to her safety, undue distress and significant harm to her reputation.” He called on those who shared it, including social media platforms, to “immediately and clearly withdraw the information.”

Derek Kelly, HCDP chief of staff, confirmed that Bowen had previously worked for the party. He said that shortly after the false posts appeared, his office was also flooded with unpleasant messages, and phone calls made it difficult for people with legitimate concerns to contact him. Armed security officers regularly stop by the office due to the violent nature of some of the messages.

“It’s a big obstacle to doing our job,” he said of the false claims. “It’s just completely false, made-up stuff.”

In their closing statements, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump closed out Tuesday’s debate with different messages about America’s future.

A doctored video showing Trump ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania

Claim: Video shows ballots intended for Trump being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, while ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris were put back into envelopes for recounting.

THE FACTS: The Bucks County Board of Elections deemed the video “false” Thursday afternoon. The FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies said the video was “produced and enhanced” by Russian actors.

“The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials owned or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” the board said in a statement. The video was reported to law enforcement authorities.

In a statement released late Friday, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the video is “part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise baseless questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke division among citizens.” Americans.

Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia, the board’s chair and vice-chair respectively, called the video “dangerous disinformation” in a joint statement.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement Thursday evening that it and Yardley Borough police investigated the video and “concluded that it was fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.”

User X, who popularized the inauthentic video, previously shared multiple narratives created by a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop, raising questions about whether it was created as part of a foreign influence campaign.

In a statement, the FBI also warned that U.S. intelligence officials expect Russia to “create and publish additional media content in the coming weeks that will seek to undermine confidence in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”

— Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

The posts spread misinformation about Michigan’s voter rolls

Claim: There are 500,000 more registered voters than eligible voters in Michigan, creating a risk of widespread fraud.

FACTS: Context is missing. Although the state has more total registered voters than eligible voters, that number includes voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from the voter rolls under federal and state law. The number of active voters is much smaller than the number of eligible voters, and experts say there is no reason to believe this will lead to widespread fraud.

Still, many social media users suggested the numbers were evidence that Michigan was trying to cheat the 2024 election. They included billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who has pledged at least $70 million to support Trump.

“Jocelyn Michelle Benson, shame on you for blatantly lying to the public!” Musk wrote in X’s post to Michigan’s secretary of state. “You only plan to remove ineligible voters AFTER this election. This necessarily means that many more people are registered to vote than are eligible to vote.”

Benson responded on X, stating: “Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous disinformation. Here are the facts: There are no more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million registered active voters and 7.9 voting-age citizens in our state. “Musk provides a misleading number that includes 1.2 million inactive records that are supposed to be deleted by law.”

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

As of July 1, 2023, there were approximately 7.9 million people of voting age in Michigan. This number is 500,000 fewer than the total number of registered voters – about 8.4 million. This is because the total number of registered voters includes 1.2 million inactive voters. People marked as inactive have not voted for six consecutive years or have not responded to a notice confirming their residency. Inactive voters are still eligible to vote.

Under state and federal law, voters are removed from the voter rolls only after a notice is sent that their registration may be canceled and two consecutive federal election cycles have passed without any response or vote. A voter’s registration cannot be invalidated solely because of failure to vote.

This waiting period results in more registered voters in the state than eligible voters.

Over 339,000 voter registrations are expected to be canceled in 2025 and over 257,000 in 2027. As of March 2024, Michigan has canceled over 800,000 voter registrations since 2019, including 273,609 for possible relocations , 532,513 due to deaths and 16,716 on request according to the Department of State.

The Republican National Committee and two individual voters filed a federal lawsuit in March against Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater for allegedly failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter records.” On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing and nevertheless failed to present a compelling claim.

Michigan isn’t the only state with a large number of inactive voters. Every state — except six that are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act — must send voters a cancellation notice and wait two federal election cycles before removing inactive voters.

According to David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who served as co-chair of Michigan’s Election Security Advisory Commission, the high number of inactive voters indicates robust roll maintenance.

— Melissa Goldin

Voting machines in Georgia do not flip votes

Claim: A Dominion voting machine in Whitfield County, Georgia, transferred a vote to a candidate that was not selected by the voter.

FACTS: This is not true. The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Recorders issued a press release on October 19 noting that the case involved one voter out of 6,000 ballots cast since early voting began on October 15. The ballot was tampered with and the voter cast a substitute vote, which was counted. Officials said there was no problem with the voting machine.

Gabriel Sterling, director of operations for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said every report he has seen so far that a printed ballot did not reflect selections made on a touchscreen voting machine was the result of voter error.

These statements came after a post by American Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed on X that a voting machine had changed the ballot during early voting in her district in Georgia. She later updated her post with a statement from county election officials explaining what happened and thanking them for fixing the problem.

Whitfield County elections officials said in a news release that a voter was reviewing his printed ballot and noticed it did not reflect his selection. An electoral commission employee assisted the voter in selecting his choice and casting his vote.

“Georgia law allows voters to spoil their printed ballot if they make an incorrect selection on a ballot marking machine. If a voter requests to change their selection, they are immediately given a new opportunity to make and print the correct choice,” officials said.

They noted that if there were grounds to suspect the machine had made an error, it would be taken out of service. County elections officials said no machines have been taken out of service.