October 25, 2024
4 min read
These Are the Rumors and Misinformation to Watch for on Election Day
We can anticipate many false claims as we approach the U.S. presidential election—including untrue allegations of mass voting by noncitizens or of “suspicious vans” outside polling booths—and should quickly counter them, a misinformation expert says
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This year’s US presidential race is unprecedented, with a last-minute switch in the Democratic Party’s nominee and assassination attempts targeting Republican Party candidate Donald Trump. As anxiety about the outcome mounts, and with conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results lingering, the stage is set for a period of intense rumoring about voting and counting-related processes.
Using ongoing social-media research conducted at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public in Seattle, which I co-lead, my colleagues and I can identify rumors spreading across both Democratic and Republican online networks in real time. We can see how election rumors emerge as events unfold, and how they frequently combine first-hand accounts, such as photos or videos, with pre-existing narratives, for example that non-US citizens vote in large numbers. Understanding how election events combine with partisan tropes can make rumors more predictable (E. S. Spiro and K. Starbird Issues Sci. Technol. 39(3), 47–49; 2023). Here, we describe three types of rumor that we expect election deniers to lean on as we approach voting day.
False allegations and conspiracy theories about widespread voting by non-citizens is a major theme in this election. For example, we have seen several person-on-the-street video interviews on social-media platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram that supposedly show non-citizens admitting that they are registered, planning to vote or have voted. Some videos use selective editing and inaccurate subtitles to create a false impression….
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