Officials in the US state of Pennsylvania have rejected claims that “illegal voters” were able to request ballots and vote at an elections office in Allegheny County.

Officials issued a statement after posts about X went viral, claiming to show “illegal voters” being guided past American voters who had been waiting in line.

The video shows a line outside a satellite elections office in Allegheny County, the state’s second most populous county, and a second, smaller group appearing to walk past the long line and talk to someone near the entrance to the polling place. .

Allegheny County officials told the BBC that the group had come to request mail-in ballots, and officials reiterated that only American citizens can register to vote.

BBC Verify understands that some of the group seen in the viral video are US citizens of Nepalese and Bhutanese descent. The BBC has not been able to independently verify this.

Viral posts on X claimed that buses of “non-citizens” had been brought in to cast their votes illegally. Some also claimed they were wearing stickers supporting the Harris-Walz campaign, which are not visible in the video.

The video has been viewed by millions of people on X and shared by right-wing influencers, some of whom espouse conspiracy theories.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, responded to a post with the video: “Is this real?”

It is illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, and studies show that cases in which this happens are extremely rare.

Others online speculated that the group had not only voted illegally, but had also skipped the line to do so. But county officials told BBC Verify that some members of the group “needed the help of translators.”

Authorities say the moments recorded in the viral video were a brief conversation between voters, their translators and a county employee, which was circulated online by right-wing influencers.

“The county employee instructed that elderly and disabled people be allowed to sit while they waited for their applications to be processed,” officials said, adding that this was the case for any elderly or disabled voter at any voting office. .

Referring to the viral video, they said, “healthy voters returned to the back of the line, elderly and disabled voters were allowed to sit and wait their turn, and those who needed the help of a translator were able to use their translator to assist them in the process.” process”.

A separate video shared alongside it shows a man claiming to have been at the polling place at the time and seen the incident unfold. We were unable to verify this video.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said that “disseminating videos and other information that lacks context and sharing social posts with half-truths and even outright lies is detrimental to our representative democracy.”

Pennsylvania is a key swing state and has been the focus of claims from right-wing influencers questioning the integrity of the vote.

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