The claim: ’20 million less votes’ shows 2024 election was stolen
A Nov. 6 Threads post (direct link, archive link) claims vote totals point to election fraud in the 2024 presidential election.
“Harris shouldn’t concede,” the post reads. “20 million less votes than last election? 14 million more votes for Trump over Harris? Trump and those around him were more than confident Trump would win. How did they know? We need an investigation. This election was stolen.”
Other social media users have echoed the claim, asserting that Vice President Kamala Harris received 20 million fewer votes than President Joe Biden received in 2020.
The Threads post was liked 1,000 times in a week.
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Our rating: False
The post’s erroneous claim of a “stolen” election was based on early and incomplete results in the Nov. 5 election. The votes weren’t all counted as of Nov. 6 − and they still aren’t − but tallies as of Nov. 13 show there is no voting gap of 20 million, and the margin between Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump is far closer than 14 million.
Votes are still being counted in the 2024 presidential election
The Associated Press called the presidential race for Trump early on Nov. 6, the same day the Threads post was shared. However, the results of the Nov. 5 election were not finalized on that date. Votes are still being counted across the country as of Nov. 13, meaning the vote gaps in the post were based on incomplete information and are not indicative of electoral wrongdoing.
The post doesn’t specify what the 20 million-vote gap is comparing, but it’s wrong in any case.
About 158.4 million votes were cast in the 2020 presidential election, according to Federal Election Commission numbers. The post, on Nov. 6, was claiming the 2024 total falls well short of that, but that’s a nonsensical claim at that juncture since many votes had yet to be counted at that point.
Election analysts expected a total of 156 million votes in the 2024 presidential election as of Nov. 13. As of Nov. 6, only 141.9 million votes had been counted, or about 91%, according to an archived version of election results reported by NBC News. About 150.2 million votes had been counted as of Nov. 13, the New York Times reported.
In other words, the 2020 to 2024 gap was about 16 million votes as of Nov. 6, but once the count is complete the gap is expected to be around 2 million.
There’s also no 20 million-vote gap between Democratic totals in the last two elections, if that’s the point the post was attempting to make. Biden received about 81.3 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to results published by the Federal Election Commission. As of Nov. 13, Harris tallied about 72.5 million votes, according to the AP, a difference of about 8.8 million votes. Harris had about 67.4 million votes as of Nov. 6.
The post is also wrong about Trump leading Harris by more than 14 million votes. By the AP’s count, Trump’s lead over Harris stood at about 3.1 million votes as of Nov. 13. Trump led Harris by about 4.8 million votes on Nov. 6.
Votes are still being counted across the country, including in the West, where mail-in voting is common and can take more time for election workers to process and tabulate ballots, Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said in an email.
In the Democratic stronghold of California, for example, the AP estimated that 84% of votes had been counted as of Nov. 13. Harris led Trump by about 21 percentage points there, suggesting she could make up more ground against Biden’s 2020 performance and Trump’s 2024 lead in the national popular vote as the state continues its count. County election officials in California are working toward December deadlines to report official results to the California Secretary of State’s Office, which will certify results on Dec. 13.
Fact check: Donald Trump won elections in 2016 and 2024 – not 2020
The post asserts voting tallies indicate fraud, but there have also been no credible reports of widespread voter fraud in the 2024 presidential election. To the contrary, reputable news organizations reported Election Day went smoothly outside of a few notable disruptions, such as hoax bomb threats in several swing states.
“Thanks to tireless preparation and work by thousands of election workers across the country, the 2024 election was free and fair,” Ramachandran said.
Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a Nov. 6 statement that the agency had “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
And in her Nov. 6 concession speech, Harris said, “When we lose an election, we accept the results.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Threads user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
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Gowri Ramachandran, Nov. 12, Email exchange with USA TODAY
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Jen Easterly, Nov. 6, Statement from CISA Director Easterly on the Security of the 2024 Elections
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Federal Elections Commission, October 2022, Federal Elections 2020: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives
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The Associated Press, accessed Nov. 13, 2024 Presidential Election Results
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The Cook Political Report, 2024 National Popular Vote Tracker
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The Associated Press, Nov. 5, Bomb threats in swing states disrupt a mostly smooth Election Day
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NPR, Nov. 6, Bomb threats disrupted what was otherwise relatively smooth voting on Election Day
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CNN, Nov. 6, Battleground states counted ballots quickly after mostly smooth Election Day vote
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The New York Times, accessed Nov. 13, Presidential Election Results: Trump Wins
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NBC News (Internet Archive), Nov. 6, 2024 President Results: Trump wins
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Nate Silver, Nov. 13, X post
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This story was updated to add new information.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Claim of 20 million vote gap compared to 2020 is false | Fact check
