Democrats say their bill, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, would expand voter access in federal elections. But a Facebook post falsely claims the legislation would prevent the removal of dead people from voter rolls. The bill doesn’t say that, and existing federal legislation requires states to remove names of the deceased from voting lists.
The falsehood that votes for President Donald Trump weren’t counted in Arizona because the ballots were filled out with Sharpie pens spread widely on the day after the election. But the county where the claim originated actually recommends that voters use fine tip Sharpies to fill out their ballots.
Several posts on social media have made false or misleading claims alleging voter suppression and voting fraud across the United States.
A popular Democratic Facebook page falsely claimed that “Trump supporters are blocking access to polling sites” in a New Jersey town on Election Day. Local police called the report “entirely false.” The photo cited in the post was taken two days earlier.
Social media posts falsely claim that a video shows get-out-the-vote marchers in North Carolina were pepper-sprayed by police because they were “blocking polls & intimidating voters.” The nearest voting place was a block away from the marchers’ rally, and the governor said the police engaged in “voter intimidation.”
A popular Instagram post suggests nefarious actors are misrepresenting trash cans in Philadelphia as ballot boxes. The signs seen in the images were actually part of a poorly conceived advertising effort for an exhibit about voting rights — and they were quickly removed.
In remarks in Alabama, Hillary Clinton took aim at state laws that she said disenfranchise minority voters. But she went too far in a couple of instances when discussing the impact of Wisconsin and Georgia laws in the 2016 election, when she ran for president.