Officials in the US state of Pennsylvania have rejected allegations that “illegal voters” may have requested ballots and voted at an election office in Allegheny County.

Officials released a statement after posts about X went viral, claiming to show “illegal voters” being guided past US voters waiting in line.

The video shows a line outside a satellite election office in Allegheny County — the state’s second-most populous county — and a second, smaller group that appears to walk past the long line and talk to someone near the entrance to the electoral center.

Allegheny County officials told the BBC that the group had come to request an absentee ballot, and they reiterated that only U.S. citizens can register to vote.

BBC Verify understands that some people in the group seen in the viral video are US citizens of Nepalese and Bhutanese origin. The BBC has not been able to independently verify this.

Viral posts on X claimed that busloads of “non-citizens” were brought in to vote illegally. Some also claimed they were wearing stickers supporting the Harris-Walz campaign, which are not visible in the video.

The video was seen by millions of people on X and shared by right-wing influencers, some espousing conspiracy theories.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, responded to a post with the video: “Is this real?

It is illegal for non-US citizens to vote in federal elections, and studies show that cases where this happens are extremely rare.

Other netizens speculated that not only had the group voted illegally, but they had also skipped the line to do so. But county officials told BBC Verify that some members of the group “required help from translators.”

Officials say the moments recorded in the viral video were a brief conversation between voters, their translators and a county employee, which was spread online by right-wing influencers.

“The county clerk gave instructions that elderly and disabled people were allowed to sit while waiting for their application to be processed,” officials said, adding that this was the case for any elderly or disabled voters at any polling station.

Referring to the viral video, they said: “Able-bodied voters returned to the back of the line, elderly and disabled voters were allowed to sit and wait their turn, and those who needed assistance of a translator were able to use their translator to help them throughout the process.

A separate video that was shared alongside this one shows a man who claims to have been at the polling location at the time and saw the incident unfold. We were unable to verify this video.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said that “releasing videos and other information lacking context and sharing social media posts containing half-truths or even outright lies harm to our representative democracy.

Pennsylvania is a swing state and has been the subject of claims from right-wing influencers questioning the integrity of the vote.

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