ELECTIONS

Election officials are fighting a tsunami of voting conspiracy theories

Oct 24, 2024, 9:00 AM

The inside of a voting booth is pictured at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake Cit...

FILE: The inside of a voting booth is pictured at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

ATLANTA (AP) — Among current election conspiracy theories? Voting machines reversing votes. More voters registered than people eligible. Large numbers of noncitizens voting.

With less than two weeks before Election Day, a resurgence in conspiracy theories and misinformation about voting is forcing state and local election officials to spend their time debunking rumors and explaining how elections are run at the same time they’re overseeing early voting and preparing for Nov. 5.

KSL NewsRadio’s election coverage

“Truth is boring, facts are boring, and outrage is really interesting,” says Utah’s Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in her state. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole with truth. But what we try to do is just get as much information out there as possible.”

In the past week, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed a voting machine had changed a voter’s ballot in her Georgia district during early voting, and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, has promoted various conspiracy theories about voting machines and voter fraud both online and at a rally for Trump in Pennsylvania.

The conspiracy theories that have surfaced in recent weeks are not new. There have long been claims of “vote flipping,” with the most recent ones surfacing in Georgia and Tennessee.

Read the complete Associated Press story.

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Election officials are fighting a tsunami of voting conspiracy theories