While the Associated Press vote rely was really 16 million votes decrease on the time of publication than it was within the 2020 election, the reason is trivially easy: The complete vote has not but been tabulated.
“Election rejection is undemocratic, whether or not it comes from the left or the best,” David Becker, government director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote in X. “No, 20 million votes will not be lacking. Votes are nonetheless being counted in lots of states, together with hundreds of thousands in California alone. Number of votes in 2024 very near 2020, when all will probably be reported”
Posts associated to those conspiracy theories started gaining traction round 2 a.m. Eastern, PeakMetrics knowledge exhibits, which roughly coincides with the time the election was referred to as for Trump, but additionally as Americans went to mattress, the variety of posts didn’t lower.
“By 8 a.m. ET, the variety of posts per hour had risen to 31,991,” PeakMetrics wrote in an evaluation shared with WIRED. “There was maybe a stunning lack of late-night churn in posts from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. ET, when posts sometimes taper off as they hit bedtime within the United States. The regular improve in posts about Kamala’s recount/lacking votes narrative through the late-night hours could merely replicate the depth of this dialogue or could point out inauthentic or automated posting conduct.”
Unlike the 2020 election denial motion, impressed by Trump’s refusal to simply accept the outcomes, these conspiracy theories have obtained no help from the candidate. On Wednesday, Harris urged her supporters to simply accept the outcomes and guaranteed them that her workforce “will decide to a peaceable switch of energy.”
The phenomenon of left-wing or anti-Trump accounts posting conspiracy theories on social media platforms, referred to as BlueAnon, got here to prominence earlier this yr within the wake of the try on Trump’s life in July.
“Any occasion that appears unlikely will all the time invite conspiracy theories about what actually occurred,” says Mike Rothschild, an creator who writes about conspiracy theories and extremists. “In this case, it’s a factually incorrect narrative that there are tens of hundreds of thousands of lacking votes and that Russian bomb threats sabotaged Harris’ marketing campaign. Neither is true: Voter turnout seems to be declining, and plenty of states, together with California, are nonetheless counting. And whereas bomb threats are by no means acceptable, they aren’t the explanation Harris’ marketing campaign misplaced each swing state. Writing Trump’s victory about conspiracy theories isn’t residing in actuality.”
