Fact checking Election Day 2024 claims about voter fraud, ballot counting and more

Throughout Election Day and night, CBS News' Confirmed team will be fact checking reports of threats around voting today, voter fraud, election hacking, and more as the nation votes and waits to see whether Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. 

The Confirmed team and CBS News reporters are also providing updates on voting machine errors and problems as they happen. CBS News' full coverage of the election is here.

False: Social media posts claim Harris voters bused from New York to Pennsylvania 

Social media users are claiming Kamala Harris voters from New York City are being bused to vote in Pennsylvania.

Details: Many of the claims reviewed by CBS News included a video posted Tuesday by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, which depicts a line of people standing next to several buses in Manhattan. Those volunteers weren't being bused to vote in Pennsylvania, but rather, were taking part in a canvassing event organized by the Democratic National Committee, Levine's office confirmed.

"The idea that campaign volunteers from New York knocking on doors in Pennsylvania are actually part of a secret conspiracy of fake voters is so absurd it doesn't really warrant a response," Levine said in a statement to CBS News.

One of the posts reviewed by CBS News had been viewed more than 2 million times, with thousands of replies and reposts amplifying its message. That post also claimed that 150 people were detained in connection with the incident. A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said they had no record of any such incident.

By Chris Hacker

False: Elon Musk claimed Google intentionally manipulating search results in favor of Harris 

Social media platform X owner Elon Musk posted, then deleted, a screen recording comparing the Google searches. The post reached over 2.5 million views before its removal, with other posts garnering thousands of views.

Details: Google said searches for "where to vote for Harris" yielded a polling location map because Harris is also the name of a county in Texas, not because of bias for the Democratic candidate.

Searching for "where to vote for Trump" returned news articles and standard search results, while "where to vote for Vance" produced a similar polling locations map because Vance is the name of a county in North Carolina.

Google adjusted its algorithm Tuesday to prevent candidate-related queries from returning polling maps. Google trends data show that searching "where to vote" is a much more common query than searching where to vote for either Trump or Harris.

By Julia Ingram and Layla Ferris

False: Social media posts claim Milwaukee mayor, a Democrat, said the city's votes would not be counted on election night

On X, users claimed that the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee said at a news conference that Milwaukee would not be counting ballots tonight.

Details: Votes in Milwaukee will be tabulated tonight despite posts on the social media platform X that have pushed a false claim that Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said votes in the city won't be counted on election night.

In reality, vote counting started Tuesday morning and will continue late into Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning at the city's so-called "central count" location, according to Johnson's communications director, Jeff Fleming.
"They've already started tabulating, and had tabulated thousands of ballots by this afternoon," Fleming said. "The vote totals exceeded our original projections, so the workload at central count is higher than expected."

Milwaukee's votes can take longer to count for several reasons, Barry Burden, Director of the University of Wisconsin's Elections Research Center, said.

"It's the biggest city, and it has the most ballots, and it also counts absentee ballots at a central location," Burden said. "That'll be after midnight, 1 (a.m.) or 2 a.m."

The city's more than 200 election workers started counting votes at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, Fleming said. They'll continue the tabulation overnight, and ballots will be delivered to county clerks either the next day or the day after, depending on local rules.

By Chris Hacker

Spreadsheet error corrected: GOP U.S. House candidate says Harris County, Texas, early vote results showed big drops and spikes in early voting

U.S. House candidate Caroline Kane, a Republican running in Texas' 7th District, posted on X Monday that Harris County's early vote results showed significant drops and spikes in the number of early voters for several voting locations between Sunday and Monday, which should not be possible.

Details: Election officials said a misaligned spreadsheet caused the publicly reported early vote totals in Harris County to appear incorrectly. Local officials have corrected the document posted online by Kane. They noted the spreadsheet was labeled "unofficial" and said the error would not impact the official vote tally.

In a statement, the Office of the Harris County Clerk said, "In the process of updating the daily record of early vote totals for two vote centers (Baytown Community Center and Mission Bend Center), the formatting of the spreadsheet inadvertently misaligned, causing cells to shift and reflect incorrect numbers for other locations. Our office is aware and is actively working to correct the report."

"I assure you that every vote that was cast will be accurately tallied," the statement from the clerk's office concluded.

By Jui Sarwate

Software malfunction prevented some voters from scanning ballots in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Voting hours extended to 10 p.m. in the county.

Details: Local courts have extended voting hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Cambria County, Pennsylvania after local officials said a "software malfunction" prevented voters from scanning their ballots early Tuesday morning.

Voters are using paper ballots as technicians review the issue. 

"All votes will be counted and we continue to encourage everyone to vote," the county commissioner's office said in a press release.

According to the county's petition to extend voting hours, the malfunction "caused voter confusion, long lines of voters, and many individuals left the polling locations without casting a ballot.

"The Pennsylvania Department of State said it is in contact with Cambria County and is "committed to ensuring a free, fair, safe, and secure election."

Cambria County, located in southwestern Pennsylvania, has a population of approximately 131,000. Trump won the county 68% to 31% in 2020, and he won by a similar margin in 2016.

By Steve Reilly, Julia Ingram, Layla Ferris

False: Non-citizens encouraged to vote in Philadelphia

Conservative commentator James O'Keefe claimed non-citizens are being encouraged to vote in Philadelphia.

Details: Philadelphia officials said allegations by commentator James O'Keefe that non-citizens are being encouraged to vote are incorrect. O'Keefe posted a new video on Monday claiming Election Clerk Milton Jamerson and Ceiba, a local non-profit, advised voting with an ITIN number, regardless of citizenship.

The video received 1.6 million views on X as of Tuesday, and was reposted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who said it was "the smoking gun of attempted election theft."

Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said the report was incorrect and non-citizens are not eligible to vote in Philadelphia. ITINs are for tax purposes and not linked to voting eligibility. Ceiba called O'Keefe's claims "unfounded and based on harmful stereotypes."

By Joanne Stocker and Emmet Lyons

False: Social media post claims over 14,000 power outages in Northampton County, Pennsylvania

One widely shared social media post claimed there were over 14,000 power outages at around 1 p.m. ET. in Northampton County.

Details: Voting was not impacted by power outages in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, according to a county spokesperson and spokesperson for Met-Ed, an electricity provider in the state. The county is north of Philadelphia.

A power outage just before noon on Tuesday that lasted 6 - 10 minutes affected eight polling stations in Northampton County, the Met-Ed spokesperson said, but voting was not disrupted because the sites had battery backups.

Social media users posted about outages in parts of Eastern Pennsylvania, blaming the outages for long lines and delays in voting. Met-Ed's spokesperson said this was false and that there was only one outage impacting about 17,000 customers at 11:42 a.m.

By Erielle Delzer and Julia Ingram

Wisconsin officials hit reset after gaffe with tabulation machine doors, saying no threat to votes but modest delay 

Details: The tabulating machines at Milwaukee Central Count are being reset, and officials will start a re-count of some 31,000 ballots. This means the final count will be delayed. 

There is no estimate as to how long the delay will be. Officials said the doors of the machines weren't closed properly and did not seal. They said for the sake of transparency, the approximately 31,000 ballots will be put through the counting machines again. 

Officials emphasized that there was no evidence of any actual risk to the ballots or vote count. The machines were being zeroed out under observation before beginning the count again. Milwaukee's GOP Chair, Hilario Deleon, told CBS News that he and Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulian Gutierrez went around to all the tabulation machines to check them together and closed the doors. 

At the time, Deleon told me he felt good about the transparency in the process and that it had been resolved. He noted that he had alerted his party's attorneys.

By Katrina Kaufman

Pennsylvania officials say "bad-faith mass challenges" target more than 3,500 voters

Details: If the election in Pennsylvania is close, new challenges made to over 3,500 voters, many of whom live overseas and cast ballots by mail, could prove to be a pivotal part of the effort to undermine confidence in the 2024 election. 

"Throughout the day Friday, several bad-faith mass challenges were filed in a coordinated effort in counties across the Commonwealth to question the qualifications of thousands of registered Pennsylvania voters who applied to vote by mail ballot," the Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement. 

Most of the voters are individuals who live overseas and vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, a federal law that has allowed certain citizens living overseas to vote since 1986. This group of voters includes active military members, people who work abroad, and expats.

 By Madeleine May and Julia Ingram

FBI says new fabricated content is designed to mislead American public

Details: The FBI has warned of new fabricated videos and statements claiming to be from the agency that promote false claims about voter fraud and threats to polling places. They were likely part of a Russian disinformation campaign, researchers say.

The FBI said its insignia, name, and likeness spread false claims about violence at a polling station, a warning to suspend school activities due to a heightened risk of violence, and claims of voting machines switching votes for Harris.Antibot4Navalny, a team of anonymous volunteers monitoring Russian disinformation efforts, said the videos and statements were likely created by a Russian disinformation group known for impersonating media organizations and U.S. government entities.

The same group created similar videos that the FBI recently warned about, researchers said.

By Erielle Delzer

False: Trump claims "massive cheating" in Philadelphia

Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that "massive cheating" is happening in Philadelphia today.

Details: Trump's claim that "massive cheating" is happening in Philadelphia on Election Day is false, City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican, said. 

"There is absolutely no truth to this allegation," Bluestein wrote on X, adding that voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure. 

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that there's no "factual basis" to Trump's claim. "The only talk about massive cheating has come from one of the candidates, Donald J. Trump," Krasner said in a statement. "There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation. We have invited complaints and allegations of improprieties all day. If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath." 

The Philadelphia Police Department said it wasn't "aware of anything" Trump referred to in his post. A senior federal official also suggested Trump's posts about cheating in Philadelphia and law enforcement activity in Philadelphia and Detroit were not true: "We have seen no evidence, data or reporting to support these claims."

By Tom Ignudo, Michael Kaplan