Donald Trump supporters have sparked a panic among themselves over their own debunked election fraud conspiracies.
For the entirety of Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign, his followers have been fixated on non-existent voter fraud. Although voter fraud is incredibly rare because it’s illegal and there are laws in place that effectively prevent it, conservatives continue peddling the false narrative that it’s a major issue. Recently, Republicans threatened a government shutdown due to initially refusing to accept a new funding bill unless a Trump-backed bill targeting noncitizen voting was also passed. Similarly, the SCOTUS sparked concerns when it sided with Virginia in allowing it to purge 1,600 individuals from voter rolls days before the election, despite the fact these individuals weren’t verified noncitizens. Since laws are already in place to prevent voter fraud, any additional bills, photo ID stipulations, and voter roll purges are arbitrary measures that only threaten to create obstacles to citizens legally voting.
Now that Election Day 2024 is here, MAGA voter fraud hysteria has risen exponentially, with conservatives convincing themselves that it exists based on a “black dot.”
MAGA spirals over a dot
The strangest part of MAGA’s voter fraud conspiracies is that they cropped up in Kentucky. For context, Kentucky historically votes Republican, and it’s one of the states that Trump is almost sure to win. The state’s voting history made MAGA’s claims of a scheme to turn Kentucky blue sound even more bonkers. Undeterred, though, users took to X, claiming they uncovered a Kentucky voter fraud scheme. Their proof is … a black dot … An alleged ballot from Kentucky with a tiny black dot in the Harris/Walz box has spread like wildfire on X, leading to many hysterical posts from MAGA.
A post from user SportsFanatic25 showed an image of the alleged dot, demanding an explanation. The user wrote, “Is the fix already in?? Geez I hope not but this is bad!!”
The photo caught the attention of several big MAGA accounts, who confirmed it was from Kentucky. Andrew Torba, the founder of the right-wing extremist social media platform Gab, posted the image, claiming that the black dot means the ballot will be voided if the voter selects Trump, as the machine will read it as both boxes marked. Soon, countless right-wing accounts began sharing the image, stirring hysteria about “shenanigans” and officials trying to “spoil” ballots.
Kentucky officials quickly debunked the conspiracy theory, confirming they had received no complaints about ballots with dots on them. Additionally, Kentucky voting laws ensure that the existence of a dot would not void votes. After all, the ballot recognizes many things, such as a filled-in selection box, circling, underlying, and “X” mark as votes, but a tiny dot doesn’t meet any of those criteria. Hence, if one fills out the ballot correctly, the officials will know their intended selection regardless of a dot. On top of that, if voters still aren’t reassured, they can always exchange a spoiled ballot for a new one without issue. However, since the Kentucky State Board of Elections hasn’t recorded any complaints about dots, it cannot even confirm the ballot circulating the internet exists outside the “vacuum of social media.”
Published: Nov 5, 2024 06:01 pm