Since 2020, when former President Donald Trump and his allies began spreading conspiracy theories that the presidential election had been stolen, such falsehoods have become a prevalent feature of U.S. local, state, and national elections.
That’s especially true in swing states like Pennsylvania, and this year’s 2022 midterm election — featuring high-stakes races for governor and U.S. Senate — is no exception.
Sometimes, familiar theories reemerge. Other times, new issues pop up and gain traction. Here are four of the prominent false or misleading concerns that are circulating right now:
One is the idea that Pennsylvania’s voting machines are connected to the internet and therefore vulnerable to malicious hacking.
That’s not true.
But it’s one of many pieces of misinformation that Toni Shuppe — who might be GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano’s pick for secretary of state — recently posited to followers on her popular Substack. Shuppe is a co-founder of the group Audit the Vote Pa., which has conducted flawed surveys of 2020 voters in a futile search for widespread fraud.
Repeatedly, local election officials have confirmed that the machines they currently use are not, and never will be, connected to the internet. Pennsylvania also requires voting machines that have voter-verifiable paper records.
Another conspiracy theory that has grown popular since 2020 is that there’s something nefarious about the length of time it takes Pennsylvania —...
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