patheur

Typo in Trump’s name on ballot review screen is not ‘voter fraud’

Sakege November 6, 2024

This article will be available in English. in El Tiempo Latino.

quick take

A misspelling of former President Donald Trump’s name occurred on an optional ballot review screen in Virginia, prompting an unfounded claim on social media of “voter fraud.” The error was a typo that appeared only on the ballot review screen, not on the actual ballots, and would not affect any votes, election officials said.

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Virginia’s voting process includes an optional ballot review screen, which is designed to display a voter’s selections before casting their vote. The optional screen helps voters verify their choices and correct any errors.

But a video shared on social media showing a spelling mistake on a ballot review screen has sparked unfounded accusations of voter fraud in Washington County, Virginia.

A post from October 29 on Instagram shows a video with former President Donald Trump’s name misspelled as “Triumph” on a ballot review screen. The accompanying text states: “This was a voter in Virginia 4 days ago. “Why is there an I in Donald J. Trump’s name?”

The X RealAF Patriot account shared the video with a message that said: “ELECTORAL FRAUD IN VIRGINIA!? A voter shows that Trump is incorrectly spelled Triump. Is that so that votes are not recorded for Trump? The publication received more than 3 million views, according to the platform.

Andrea M. Gaines, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Elections, told us in an email that the misspelling of Trump’s name occurred on computers in Washington County. “We cannot confirm the origin of the video,” he said.

But Gaines said “the review screen does not affect the tabulation of ballots or the reporting of results.”

Derek N. LyallWashington County elections director and general recorder, told us in an email: “All Washington County voters cast their votes on paper ballots. The names of all candidates are spelled correctly on the paper ballots.”

Lyall explained that the misspelling was a typo on the optional ballot review screen, which is only activated if a voter specifically requests it before inserting a ballot. “Of the more than 10,000 voters who have cast their ballots in Washington County, less than twenty voters have requested to use this optional ballot review screen,” he noted.

Lyall said the error was discovered too late to reprogram voting equipment for the election. However, he said all voting equipment had been thoroughly tested and was working as intended. “Our equipment works as designed and tabulates ballots according to voters’ choices. “A single typo on the optional ballot review screen will have no effect on anyone’s vote,” he said.

Lyall also said a notice would be posted at each polling place informing voters of this error on Election Day.

Virginia has voted for a Democrat in the last four presidential elections. In 2020, Trump lost the state by 10 percentage points, but won overwhelmingly Washington County with 75.6% of the vote.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org It is one of several organizations working with facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. facebook has uncontrolled about our editorial content.