Watch out for these election night lies

Donald Trump told lie after lie in his 2020 election night speech. With the former president running again in 2024, here are 12 possible lies to watch out for on election night this week — and maybe in the days to come.

False claims of victory

As votes were still being counted on election night 2020, Trump declared wrong that he was the winner of various swing states, he turned out to lose – and that he was the winner of the election, he turned out to lose.

Fact-checking tip: Don’t trust any candidate’s victory claims. Instead, wait for the major media outlets’ unofficial projections (popularly known as “calls”) of who will win each state and election.

False claims that Harris could not have legitimately won

It is very possible that Trump will win this election. But if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, Trump may get his false claims before November that the only way Harris could win is through deception.

Fact-checking tip: Know that this statement is nonsense. Polls have consistently found Trump and Harris locked in a tight race. It could be won, fair and square, by any of them.

False claims that out-of-context videos show nefarious behavior

Social media is full of posts that misrepresent what is happening in election-related videos. In 2020 and beyond, for example, Trump and his allies claimed that a video captured the flagrant illegality of two Georgia election workers who were in fact, it does nothing wrong.

Fact-checking tip: Before you think a video shows what a social media caption shows, look to the feeds of state and local election officials and state and local journalists.

False claims that bona fide errors were malicious

In 2020, a small county in Michigan made a error in his initial reporting of the votes, reporting Trump votes as if they were Biden votes — and Trump and his allies used that mistake, which was promptly corrected, as the primary basis for a sprawling conspiracy theory that baselessly claimed that technology the vote was manipulated to steal the election.

Fact-checking tip: Know that there are always a handful of initial mistakes when counties across the country process and report more than 150 million votes. Human error is always more likely than conspiracy; look for evidence before attributing these errors to malicious intent.

False claims that Democrat-dominated cities are engaging in massive fraud

Trump has falsely claimed for years that Democratic cities have overwhelming majorities large black populationsso like Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlantathey are full of electoral fraud.

Fact-checking tip: Ask for evidence of any such claims made in 2024. Know that there has been no evidence of any widespread voter fraud or cheating by election officials in any Democratic-dominated city or state in 2020.

False claims that normal reporting of late night votes is suspect

Trump has sustained repeatedly that there was something wrong with the alleged “downloads” of votes in the wee hours of election night 2020. In reality, those were just normal votes, being counted as usual and added to the public totals as soon as possible.

Fact-checking tip: Be aware that counting votes takes time, especially in populated urban counties with large numbers of voters, and that it is standard, not suspicious, for some votes to be reported after midnight on election night. You also know that Republican state senators in swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania refused to pass legislative proposals between the last election and this election that would have allowed for a faster count.

False claims that vote counting after election day is suspect

Trump, who infamous called in 2020 to “STOP THE COUNTING” when the count showed him to have temporary leads on Biden, has at times called into question, without basis, the legitimacy of the vote count after election night.

Fact-checking tip: Know that counting always continues after election night. While the media often “calls” races on election night, those “calls” are unofficial projections based on incomplete data. The official count continues until all valid votes have been counted.

False claims that postal ballots are rife with fraud

Trump has for four years made false claims about mail-in ballots, falsely claiming they were rife with fraud.

Fact-checking tip: Know that there is no evidence of widespread mail-in ballot fraud; while experts say there is slightly more fraud with these ballots than with in-person voting, it is still a tiny percentage of votes. Also, Trump himself encouraged supporters to vote by mail this year, as he did he continued to criticize postal ballots.

False claims that ballots accepted after Election Day are illegitimate

trump card suggested in 2020, mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day are illegitimate and should not be counted.

Fact-checking tip: Know that there is nothing illegitimate in these ballots.

Some of them are votes of military and other citizens living abroad who obtain extended return times in many states. Others may also be legal votes: even some republican-led statesincluding Utah, West Virginia, and Ohio, allow ballots from U.S. citizens to be counted, even if they arrive a certain number of days after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by or before the deadline on election day. (From this year seven cradle statesHowever, Nevada is the only state that does not require mail-in ballots to arrive by the evening of Election Day.)

False claims that there is no vetting of military and overseas voters

trump card claimed without basis in September that Democrats were using military and overseas ballots to rig elections by falsely saying these ballots were being sent to people whose identities had not been verified.

Fact-checking tip: Know that the identities of these voters were verified by their local election offices when they registered to vote.

False claims that non-citizens vote in droves

Trump has falsely claimed for years that large numbers of non-citizens vote illegally in presidential elections. For example, even after winning the 2016 election, he was incorrect he stated that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in California.

Fact-checking tip: Know that these statements are false. Is there a small number of known cases of illegal voting by noncitizens — and nonpartisan election law experts say such cases are almost always caught, thanks to layers of identity verification built into the registration and voting process.

False statements on Pennsylvania voter registration applications

In the week leading up to Election Day, Trump faked it alleged that more than 2,000 bogus “votes” were discovered in a single county in Pennsylvania.

Fact-checking tip: Know that the issue in this county did not involve actual votes. Rather, they were voter registration applications which were considered to be suspicious and placed under investigation.

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