If you only have a few seconds, read these lines:
- A video is circulating on social networks showing an alleged employee of the United States electoral registry tearing up ballots with votes in favor of former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump. The incident would have occurred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, days before the presidential elections on November 5.
- But this is false. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and various government institutions, such as the FBI, confirmed that it was a setup. Furthermore, the envelopes that appear in the viral piece are not real: neither their color nor their materials match those used by the Bucks County Board of Elections.
- The misinformation was also denied by the fact-checking sites Maldita, Animal Político, AFP Factual, EFE Verifica and VOA Verifica.
Within days of presidential elections in the United Statesa video began to circulate on social networks showing an alleged electoral official tearing up ballots with votes in favor of the Republican candidate and former president, Donald Trump.
“Mail-in ballots to vote for Trump appear to be destroyed by this voter registration clerk in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a major battleground state. They were always going to cheat, it’s surprising,” reads a post shared on October 25 on X.
But this is false. The video is a montage. Different government institutions in the United States confirmed after investigating the fact that the piece is false.
This was reported by the Bucks County Prosecutor’s Office and Board of Elections, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). It was even denied by the Republican Committee – party of presidential candidate Donald Trump – of the district.
Furthermore, the envelopes that are destroyed in the viral recording are not real. Neither its color nor its materials match those used by the Bucks County Board of Elections.
Disinformative content circulates through Xwith around 8 thousand “reposts”, 10 thousand “Likes”, and more than 550 thousand reproductions. It is also spread in Facebook, Instagram y Threads.
The viral piece is a montage: the ballots are not real
When making a reverse image search -with fragments of the viral video- on Google, it is not possible to find records or information that allows verifying the veracity of the fact in journalistic portals.
Furthermore, given the viralization of the video, The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office released a statement ensuring that the video is fake.
“The Bucks County Prosecutor’s Office and the Yardley Township Police Department are aware of a video circulating on social media that appears to show the destruction of ballots. “Our investigation has concluded that this video was invented in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming elections,” the text indicates.
Along the same lines, the Bucks County Board of Elections declared that the ballots seen in the viral video are not real. According to a official statementso much andl about how the materials shown “They are clearly not authentic materials owned or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections.”
“The color of the envelopes is not the correct shade of green, the paper is not the same quality as that used by the Bucks County Board of Elections, the envelopes have no return address, and no County Board of Elections employees of Bucks corresponds to the description of the person who appears in the video,” confirmed the Republican Committee – party of presidential candidate Donald Trump – of Bucks County in a publication in X.
Checked verified that the photographs available Bucks County mail-in ballots are a different green color than the ballots in the viral recording. This is confirmed by a instructional video which the district posted on its YouTube channel.
Comparison between envelopes from the viral video and an instructional video from the Bucks County Board of Elections.
Additionally, according to the Committee, “no mail-in or absentee ballots have been and will not be opened or counted until Election Day on November 5.”
For their part, different government agencies of the United States denounced that The viral video is part of a disinformation operation produced by Russia.
In one joint declaration signed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), they claim that “Russian actors fabricated and amplified a recent video that falsely showed an individual tearing up election ballots in Pennsylvania, judging by available information and the past activities of other Russian influencers, including videos and other disinformation activities.”
Officials stated that “this Russian activity is part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”
The misinformation was also denied by fact-checking sites Political Animal, AFP Factual, EFE Verifies y VOA Check.
This check is part of the initiative Third Party Fact-checker from Facebook in Argentina. In the case of photos and videos, we work with doctored images or images taken out of context and we always analyze the images together along with the text with which they were presented.
