A video that appears to show the destruction of a Bucks County mail-in ballot that was cast for Republican candidates is fake, according to officials.
The video was posted by a conservative X, formerly known as Twitter, account on Thursday afternoon and appeared to show a Bucks County mail-in ballot with a person opening it, seeing votes cast for former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, and tearing it up.
The post read: “Breaking: Destruction of Trump mail-in ballots caught on camera in Bucks County, PA. This shocking footage must be investigated immediately! If true, this could be a serious threat to the integrity of the election. It’s becoming clearer that this is the only way Democrats think they can win this election!”
The Bucks County Board of Elections investigated the video that was posted and found it to be a hoax.
“This video is fake,” a statement said.
County elections officials reported that “the envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections.”
A Republican elected official told this news organization separately that the ballot was obviously fake due to mail-in ballots not being glossy and having a different shade of green on the envelope.
Scott Pressler, a conservative activist who has helped register voters in Bucks County and across the county, posted on social media that the video is “phony – fake.”
The video was shared by other conservative social media accounts and led to phone calls to county offices.
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The same account that posted the video of the fake Bucks County mail-in ballot posted a deep fake video that made false claims against Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz. The claims in the video were disputed by several high-profile conservative commentators.
The Bucks County Board of Elections – Chair Bob Harvie, Vice Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo – issued the below bipartisan statement:
“This type of behavior is meant to sow division and distrust in our election systems, and makes a mockery of the people working incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is carried out. The Board of Elections unequivocally condemns this purposeful spreading of dangerous disinformation. We will not be distracted from the job the voters of Bucks County have entrusted to us.”
Elections officials said the video has been reported to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and the FBI, as well as the Pennsylvania Department of State.
The district attorney’s office issued the below statement:
“The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Yardley Borough Police Department are aware of a video circulating on social media appearing to show the destruction of election ballots. Our investigation has concluded that this video was fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.
Our office is in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who will be attempting to locate the source of this manufactured video.”
We want to thank the public and the county’s Board of Elections for bringing this to our attention. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office will not tolerate any voter suppression, intimidation, or fraud.”
The X account that posted the video references the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges that Democrats and some Republicans who do not support Trump eat babies and harvest a chemical compound from their bodies. The conspiracy also claims that the “Deep State” has murdered opponents, is behind sex trafficking, worked to hide evidence of a shadowy global “cabal” that spans from royalty to Hollywood actors, and that gaffes made by Trump were secret signals to conspiracy supporters. Part of the conspiracy is that a high-level government official or officials are posting their illicit moves online. With the outlandish nature of the conspiracy, QAnon predictions are almost always wrong, but part of the conspiracy is that anything that is wrong is just to throw off opponents. The QAnon movement has been linked to violence and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Bucks County Republican Committee released the below statement:
We have seen the video circulating on the internet showing someone, allegedly in Bucks County, ripping up ballots with votes for President Donald Trump. We immediately worked with our attorneys, as well as attorneys with the Trump campaign to investigate this. The Bucks County Board of Elections has confirmed that the actions seen in this video did not occur.
The video is fake, with things such as the color of the envelopes being the wrong shade of green, the paper is not the same quality used by the Bucks County Board of Elections, the envelopes lack a return address, and no employee at Bucks County Board of Election meets the description of the person in the video. Furthermore, no mail-in or absentee ballots have been or will be opened and counted until election day on November 5th.
To us, this is disinformation, aimed at scaring voters and dissuading them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in ballot process. We have seen dirty underhanded tactics this year, from the defacing of signs, letters threatening Trump supporters, and now this video trying to scare Bucks County voters.
The workers at the Board of Elections help hundreds of voters every day, and are working tirelessly to process all applications they have received. Our County Party Chair and staff all voted by mail because we are sure that our system in Bucks County works and is safe.
We will remain vigilant. We will continue to work to help voters and ensure that every vote is properly counted.
Please do not let their scare tactics work… please continue to cast your ballots, and let’s win!
Bucks County Democratic Committee Chairperson State Senator Steve Santarsiero released the below statement:
“This obviously fraudulent and, frankly, racist video is little more than a despicable attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to cast doubt on our vote by mail system and, ultimately, the outcome of the Presidential Election. It is clear that whoever made this video and those that are now trying to push it out on the internet are afraid that once again Donald Trump will lose, and so this is also an act of desperation to try and sow doubt in what we fully expect will be the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States. Fortunately, we believe the public will see this for what it is, and the election process will move forward without incident.”
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