As Election Day neared, social media lit up with users scouring for evidence of election fraud.
Some of those unsubstantiated claims are poised to become grist for Republican lawsuits contesting results should former President Donald Trump lose.
One hub of these efforts is an "Election Integrity Community" on X, formerly Twitter, set up by owner Elon Musk's super PAC, that is inviting users to "share potential incidents of voter fraud or irregularities you see while voting in the 2024 election."
The feed is full of unverified claims and rumors. A video of a Republican poll watcher suggesting — incorrectly — that ineligible noncitizens can vote as long as they can present a driver's license got over a million views.
Other users were suspicious when they were told by election workers to put their ballots into drop boxes, which have been a subject of baseless conspiracy theories since 2020. A surge of posts claimed that voting machines were flipping votes in Georgia and elsewhere, which both the Georgia secretary of state and the manufacturer have debunked.
"What we're seeing … is a kind of motivated misinterpretation where people [who are] skeptical already … of whether elections are trustworthy — they've been told by some of their favorite candidates in some cases that we can't trust the results … if that candidate doesn't win," said Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington and a co-founder of its Center for an Informed Public, which is tracking election rumors.
While people also gathered alleged evidence of fraud during the 2020 election, those who may challenge the election results are more ready to leverage the material this time around, Starbird said.
"There are lawyers at the ready to go take these rumors, misperceptions, misinterpretations, convert those into affidavits on Election Day or the days following, and try to use that either to contest whether certain votes are counted in certain places … or to use that to try to pressure election officials and others not to certify results," Starbird said.
Here's how elections officials are preparing.
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