ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Voting machines . than people eligible. Large numbers of
With less than two weeks before , a resurgence in about voting is forcing state and local election officials to spend their time and at the same time they're overseeing early voting and preparing for Nov. 5.
鈥淭ruth is boring, facts are boring, and outrage is really interesting,鈥� says Utah鈥檚 Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in her state. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like playing whack-a-mole with truth. But what we try to do is just get as much information out there as possible.鈥�
This year鈥檚 election is the first presidential contest since former President Donald Trump began about widespread voter fraud costing him reelection in 2020. The , which he , have undermined public confidence in elections and in the people who oversee them among a . Investigations have found or manipulation of four years ago, and of the where Trump his loss has Democrat J .
In the past week, U.S. Rep. claimed a voting machine had changed a voter鈥檚 ballot in her Georgia district during early voting, and , the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, has promoted various conspiracy theories about voting machines and voter fraud both online and at a
The floodgates are 鈥渧ery much鈥� open, said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works with state and local election officials.
鈥淭his is making election officials' lives much more difficult,鈥� he said.
Eric Olsen, who oversees elections in Prince William County, Virginia, said combatting misinformation has become an important and challenging part of the job.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really difficult from our position, a lot of times, because social media feels like a giant wave coming at you and we鈥檙e in a little canoe with a paddle,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut we have to do that work.鈥�
On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly about the upcoming election 鈥� something he did ahead of his two previous bids for the White House. Even after he won in 2016, he claimed he had lost the popular vote because of a flood of illegal votes and he formed a presidential advisory commission to investigate. The commission disbanded .
This year, Trump claims that Democrats will cheat again and uses 鈥淭oo Big to Rig鈥� as a rallying cry to encourage his supporters to vote. Election experts see it as laying the groundwork to again challenge the election should he lose.
Spreading bogus accusations about elections has other consequences. It's already a wave of and of election workers as well as the on the U.S. Capitol on .
The conspiracy theories that have surfaced in recent weeks are not new. There have long been claims of 鈥渧ote flipping,鈥� with the most recent ones surfacing in Georgia and Tennessee.
A claim in Georgia鈥檚 Whitfield County was highlighted by Greene on Alex Jones鈥� 鈥淚nfoWars鈥� show. Jones has a history of spreading falsehoods and was ordered to for his false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a hoax.
County election officials issued a statement, noting the case involved one voter out of 6,000 ballots that had been cast since early voting began. The ballot was spoiled, and the voter cast a replacement that was counted. Officials said there was no problem with the voting machine.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state鈥檚 office, said every report they鈥檝e seen so far of someone saying their printed ballot didn鈥檛 reflect their selections on the touchscreen voting machine has been a result of voter error.
鈥淭here is zero evidence of a machine flipping an individual鈥檚 vote,鈥� he said. 鈥淎re there elderly people whose hands shake and they probably hit the wrong button slightly and they didn鈥檛 review their ballot properly before they printed it? That鈥檚 the main situation we have seen. There is literally zero -- and I鈥檓 saying this to certain congresspeople in this state -- zero evidence of machines flipping votes. That claim was a lie in 2020 and it鈥檚 a lie now.鈥�
In Shelby County, Tennessee, county election officials said human error was to blame for reports of votes being changed. Voters had been using their fingers instead of a stylus to mark their selections on voting machines, officials said.
In Washington state, Republican Jerrod Sessler, who is running for the state鈥檚 4th Congressional District seat, shared a video on social media this week that claimed to show how easily fraudulent ballots can be created. But the video did not make clear that voter information on each ballot is checked against the state's voter list.
"A ballot returned using fake voter registration information would not be counted and is illegal in Washington state,鈥� Charlie Boisner, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office, said in an email.
Musk recently invoked Dominion Voting Systems as part of his remarks at in Pennsylvania, seeming to suggest its equipment was not trustworthy. Dominion has been at the related to the 2020 election and settled its against Fox News last year for $787 million over false claims aired repeatedly on the network. The judge in the case said it was that none of the allegations made by Trump allies on the network were true.
In a statement, Dominion said it was 鈥渃losely monitoring claims around the Nov. 2024 election鈥� and was 鈥渇ully prepared to defend our company & our customers against lies and those who spread them.鈥�
A request for comment from Musk was not immediately returned.
Musk, who has endorsed Trump, has about voter fraud to his 200 million followers on the X platform, where false information spreads .
He has often sparred online with Michigan Secretary of State . Recently, the two tangled over that there were more registered voters in Michigan, a presidential battleground state, than people eligible to vote. Benson said Musk was including in his count inactive voters who are scheduled for removal. A federal judge on Tuesday filed by the Republican National Committee claiming problems with the state鈥檚 voter list.
During an interview last month, Benson said she was disheartened to see someone in Musk鈥檚 position repeating false information.
鈥淚f he was sincerely committed, as he says he is, to ensuring people have access to information, then I would hope that he would amplify the truthful information -- the factual, accurate information -- about the security of our elections instead of just amplifying conspiracy theories and in a way that directs the ire of many of his followers onto us as individual election administrators,鈥� Benson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that we didn鈥檛 have to deal with in 2020 that creates a new battlefront and challenge for us.鈥�
___
Fernando reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press鈥痳eceives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP鈥檚 democracy initiative . The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Christina A. Cassidy And Christine Fernando, The Associated Press
