Experts who track misinformation said the 2020 election gave a head start to 2022’s false claims that normal vote counting processes are evidence of fraud.
Election officials and some Democratic leaders issued cautionary statements ahead of Nov. 8, warning that it could take days before key elections were decided. Others used those statements to suggest something nefarious.
From Sept. 1 to Nov. 8, the “voting delays” or “delays in midterm election results” narrative accumulated more than 5,000 mentions on blogs, Twitter, Reddit, in broadcast, on news sites and in other online forums and spaces, according to Zignal Labs. From September to October, those mentions jumped by 1,034%.
When Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state called a press conference two weeks before polls closed on the 2022 midterm elections, she said her aim was to prevent the spread of misinformation.
"It’s really important for us to get accurate information about the election process in Pennsylvania so voters and the public know that when there are delays in counting, it doesn’t mean that there’s anything nefarious happening," Acting Secretary of Commonwealth Leigh Chapman said. "It’s just what the law is in Pennsylvania."
Her statements might have reassured some people. But according to an analysis by Zignal Labs, a media intelligence company, Chapman’s comments were used as fodder for a growing narrative that perpetuated the election myth she was trying to dispel.
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