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Opinion polls for the midterm elections rose on Election Day, and an Instagram post added to the chorus by saying that technical issues affecting voting in many countries were indicate that the election process has been rigged.
The Nov. 8 Instagram post featured a photo of activist Emerald Robinson’s social media post and linked to her blog post about how the vote was “stolen” in the US
“Voting machines have stopped working in Maricopa County, AZ and Mercer County, NJ and Bell County, TX and voting has begun,” the photo shared on an Instagram post said.
A caption on the Instagram post reads, “Imagine my surprise. Polls, real results.”
The Instagram post was marked as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false and misleading information on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
It’s not the first time Robinson — who was suspended from Twitter and fired by right-wing network Newsmax after spreading COVID-19 misinformation — has questioned the reliability of the polls.
The issues that happened in Arizona, New Jersey and Texas did not prevent anyone from voting or counting their votes.
Vote counting machines stopped reading the election in Maricopa County
Voters in Arizona’s Maricopa County usually vote by printing completed ballots at the polling place and inserting them into ballot counting machines, known as tabulators. The scans in the tables record each vote.
On Election Day, nearly a quarter of Maricopa County’s 223 polling places said they had stopped reading completed ballots. Some ballot writers don’t have enough ink, so they can’t be read by a tabulator scanner.
Bill Gates chairs the Maricopa County Board of Trustees provided a solution for voters the voters cannot have their votes counted by the tabulators. They can place their completed ballots in a secure slot, similar to a drop box, and their votes will be counted after the polls close.
Gates said voters will also have the opportunity to go to different polling places in the county that are working on the tables.
Technicians eventually fixed the problem, but that didn’t stop the spread of false claims that Democrats were stealing the election by tampering with ballots entered into the polls.
Megan Gilbertson, director of communications for the county elections office, told PolitiFact that the writer’s issue affected 17,000 votes, or 7% of the votes on Election Day.
“All votes will be counted fairly and accurately,” he said.
Glitch takes down voting machines in Mercer County
Mercer County, New Jersey, faced similar problems as Arizona after tabulators across the county were unable to read ballots due to an unknown problem.
Instead, voters put their paper ballots in secure collection containers, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello told PolitiFact. The ballots are then taken to the Mercer County Elections office for verification.
“Obviously, it’s not ideal if you don’t have an observer on site, but we’re glad we have a paper ballot system where every voter can cast a ballot and have it counted ,” Sollami-Covello said. . “Every vote counted.”
In a separate social media post, Sollami-Covello said it was not an attack on the Mercer County election system, but a full investigation would be conducted to rule out the possibility.
The daylight hours are delayed
Eight of the 42 polls in Bell County, Texas, delayed their opening on Election Day because of issues with the number of entry machines, called electronic ballot books, that scan voter IDs and cast their ballots.
James Stafford, Bell County’s public information officer, told PolitiFact that the machines’ clocks were not automatically updated to reflect the time of day, which prevented them from entering the database. election of the council for security reasons.
Election officials were able to resolve the problem, and polls in Bell County remained open for an additional hour due to the delay.
Stafford said there was no issue with the county’s voting machines, contrary to the Instagram post’s claim.
“There is no concern about (election) security issues related to this situation,” he said. He said the incident with the check-in machines was a problem that upset voters.
Our decision
An Instagram post said voting problems in Arizona, New Jersey and Texas were signs the election had been voted out.
In Maricopa County, Arizona, many printers produced ballots that did not have enough ink, making them unreadable by the machine’s machines. The job is to put the completed ballots in a secure slot, like a drop box, to be counted after the polls close. Voters can go to other polling stations where the machines are working.
The machines that read and collect ballots malfunctioned in Mercer County, New Jersey, but voters were able to drop their paper ballots into secure collection bags to be counted when they closed. elections.
In Bell County, Texas, several entry machines that allow voters to receive ballots are not working properly because it is daylight. The problem was resolved, and the polls remained open for an additional hour to make up for the lost time.
None of the issues in any of the states prevented people from voting, and election officials in each jurisdiction said all votes had been counted.
We conclude this claim to be false.
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