How US election fraud claims changed as Trump won

Mike Wendling & Jake Horton. BBC Verify. November 8, 2024.

@RalphHightower: Trump, more than likely, cheats at golf. Trump is a pathological liar, so yes, Trump cheats at everything in business, in life.

Unlike Trump’s campaign in 2020, however, the Harris campaign and top Democratic Party officials have not endorsed allegations of cheating or voter fraud.

On election day, fraud rumours also came from President-elect Trump himself, who has repeatedly argued from the outset of his political career that the voting system is unfairly stacked against him.

Just after 16:30 Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social: “A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement coming!!!”

The now president-elect did not give any details and the Philadelphia Police Department told BBC Verify they were not aware of what Trump was referring to.

Seth Bluestein, the Republican City Commissioner in Philadelphia, posted on X: “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”

Trump has not repeated the fraud allegations since election day.

In another case, a chart that was widely circulating online claimed to show a sharp drop-off in vote totals in 2024 compared to 2020.

Many are pointing to the figures as “proof” of fraud.

Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, a Trump supporter who has pushed voter fraud theories, posted the day after the election: “Kamala got 60 million votes in 2024. Does anyone really believe Biden got 80 million in 2020? Where did those 20 million Democratic voters go? The truth is, they never existed.”

However, the chart and the figures circulating online were based on preliminary vote totals, which continue to go up as final results are still being tabulated.

Already, Harris has more than 69 million votes in her column - with Trump on more than 73 million. As of Friday, fewer than two million ballots have yet to be counted nationally, in states including Arizona and California, according to Reuters.

The BBC contacted Mr D’Souza for comment.

Those same numbers are also fuelling conspiracy theories from supporters of Harris, who are wondering where their “missing” voters are - and ignoring the fact that turnouts and preferences frequently shift, often dramatically, between elections.