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219
Elon Musk Is Spreading Election Misinformation, but X’s Fact Checkers Are Long Gone (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Civil rights lawyers and Democrats are sounding alarms about Mr. Musk’s claims about voting. The Biden campaign called his posts “profoundly irresponsible.”

In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.

“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.

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[–] CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Multiple studies have shown that mail-in ballots have a very very low incidence of fraud and does not favor any particular party. That said, I'm going to put on my black hat for a moment.

  1. Voter registration doesn't always involve a signature. It can be done online in many jurisdictions. So point 3 doesn't always work.
  2. Voter registration doesn't always confirm your address, because homeless people are permitted to vote.
  3. Mail Forwarding can be set up by a third party, without your consent. Ballots can be then be forwarded to someone wanting to vote on your behalf.
  4. When setting up absentee voting, you can specify an address unaffiliated with your actual address.
  5. Mail-in ballots can be intercepted before voting takes places or before they are picked up by a postal worker. Ballots can be intercepted at the post office prior to final delivery.
  6. Coerced voting can occur if someone is able to influence someone else's vote.

With the exception of point 5, at the end of the day, you're changing one vote with the penalty being a felony and prison time. And it's absolutely a lot of work. So if I were trying to change the results of the election, the best place to do it would be as a postal employee that delivers to the registrar.

Again, the rate in which voter fraud happens is so low, this should be a non-issue. Does it happen? Yes. And the last few election cycles, it's been performed by people in the party screaming voter fraud, who have been caught.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oregon has all vote by mail.

How will the system ensure only U.S. citizens are registered to vote?︿

​ The Elections Division will only send OMV Cards to people who have provided documentation that they are U.S. citizens

https://sos.oregon.gov/voting/Pages/motor-voter-faq.aspx

Furthermore, when can the ballots be intercepted? By going to every mailbox in a neighborhood and stealing the ballots before the postal worker picks them up? Do you really think that's feasible?

Also, coerced voting can occur no matter what the voting method.

[–] CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Given the determined nature of the MAGA party, I honestly wouldn't put it past them.

I'm not saying it's easy or even likely. I'm just saying it's possible. None of what I said should discourage anyone from voting by mail.

Remember that the long term goal of the alt right is to make seem voting illegitimate so that they can just install whomever they want.

Discrediting mail-in voting is just one part of their campaign.

[–] localme@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Mail forwarding doesn’t apply to all mail btw. For example, mail from the dmv.

After moving to a new place, I was expecting something from the dmv (had sent in the request months earlier before I knew I was moving). I had the mail forward in place, so figured I was good. I never received it, so eventually I called the dmv and they told me their mail is not redirected with a mail forward, and would just be returned to them.

I am curious if the same would apply to official election mail.