A Public Service Pronouncement
Please don’t spread conspiracy fantasies about the election, okay? TikTok and X are rocking with these two videos below (at least). They are — let’s not be polite about it — bullshit.
Before I even debunk them, let’s be clear again: This is bullshit, a live-fire exercise in a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing.
The TikToks allege that these people looked up their ballot status on Vote dor org and found nothing: “Please go check your ballot status. I just checked mine and my vote did not count! ”
Look, I’ve been doing election work a long time. What typical voters don’t know about the election process could fill libraries.
Item #1:
The video above has (of now) 1.2M engagements and 2k comments on TikTok, and 206k views on X. Her followup video notes that she’s in Washington state (voting there is virtually all by mail). She reports that her ballot status shows only “ballot mailed” and “ballot received, but not that it’s reviewed and accepted.
“As far as I am concerned, no. It doesn’t mean that it’s accepted,” says thewindwitch.
That much is right. The election is not official in Washington until after the canvass, Tuesday, November 26, 2024 and certification “twenty-one days after a general election” (Thursday, December 05, 2024). Ballots that arrive late may not be reviewed and counted for several days after Election Day. The process for Washington is outlined here. “Ballots continue to be processed, signatures verified, and votes tabulated until the election results are officially certified.” (I don’t know what their process is for “curing” late-arriving ballots.)
Thewindwitch urges people to go check their ballot status. But if they voted in person, the tool at Vote dor org won’t show anything. It’s for by-mail ballots only. My state (NC) publishes — if you know where to find the ftp site — who’s voted ea. day of early voting, as I did. Yup. I’m right there, with place and date. I’ve downloaded virtually the entire state, and still that list won’t be complete for weeks.
Item #2: More of the same.
The video above has (of now) 1.3M engagements and 1.1k comments on TikTok and 245k views on X.
Bigbootyspookycutie figured out after posting her first video that she was in fact spreading misinformation and followed up with clarifcations. No, she didn’t do mail-in. She voted in person. So no, what she found out on the Vote dor org tool is meaningless. But she’s contributed to spreading election misinformation and further undermining faith in the election process. The damage is done.
By 11 p.m. last night, we find this:
What in the fuck is going on. This is the hundredth of these I’ve seen today. How many thousands more are there like this… something is really fucking rotten here. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but how do you explain this many inconsistencies and chance variables all happening at the exact same time.
Yes, you are a conspiracy fantacist.
Readers, please don’t do this.