Disinformation Machine for Trump Targets Remaining Swing States
- President’s supporters attacking some Biden gains as bogus
- Overall volume of false narratives surprisingly low after vote
As the presidential election narrowed to a few key states, supporters of President Donald Trump began spreading false claims about election improprieties that favored Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
In Arizona, users on Facebook and YouTube have been inundated with a video of a resident who says local poll workers forced voters to use Sharpies instead of pens to mark their ballots, suggesting that would disqualify them. It turns out, Sharpies work just fine on scanners in Maricopa County. The campaign has been dubbed #SharpieGate.
In Michigan, Biden was accused of receiving a boost in polls because of a typo in results coming from Shiawassee County that added an extra 100,000 votes to his total. The error was swiftly corrected, but users on social media are citing it as proof of a fix to steal the election.
And in Wisconsin, Trump supporters claim the mail-in ballots that propelled Biden to victory early Wednesday were all fraudulent. Some social media users alleged that more votes were cast in the presidential race in Wisconsin than there are registered voters.