What’s happening: While President Donald Trump and other figures on the right seem willing to accept the Democrats’ decisive midterms victory on Nov. 3, that didn’t stop baseless claims of voter fraud from gaining significant traction online, even as the votes were still coming in.
Since the start of Election Day, NewsGuard analysts identified and debunked 12 false claims related to the midterms, among the 52 false claims that have gone viral this election cycle. Half of the false claims debunked yesterday and today involved well-worn and long-debunked voter fraud conspiracy theories.
Context: Democrats made historic gains on Nov. 3, gaining control of the House and Senate for the final two years of the Trump administration. In contrast to 2020, when Trump claimed that the election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, Trump told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the midterm results and was “looking forward to working with” Democrats.
A closer look: Nevertheless, many Americans clearly still embrace the idea that the Democratic wins could only be explained by fraud. The claims that emerged on Election Day roughly fit into three categories: polling place issues purportedly orchestrated to keep Republicans from voting, voting equipment supposedly rigging votes, and late-hour vote-counting as a sign of illegal “vote dumping.”
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