A voter in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, fills out her ballot for Michigan’s February 27 primary election. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)

A constant stream of false and misleading information is circulating online surrounding the 2024 election.

Since early voting began, false reports have claimed more registered voters than were eligible to vote in Michigan, former President Donald Trump’s ballots in Pennsylvania were destroyed and the choice of the voter was “reversed” by a Dominion voting machine in Georgia.

Here’s a look at the facts —

Posts spreading misinformation about Michigan voter rolls

CLAIM: Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than are eligible to vote, creating a risk of widespread fraud.

THE FACTS: Context is missing. Although the state has more total voter registrations than eligible voters, that number includes voters who are inactive but cannot yet be removed from the voter rolls under federal and state laws. The number of active voters is far fewer than those eligible to vote, and experts say there is no reason to believe widespread fraud will result.

Yet many social media users suggested these numbers were proof that Michigan was trying to cheat in the 2024 election. Among them was Billionaire X owner Elon Musk, who pledged at least $70 million to support Trump.

“Jocelyn Michelle Benson, shame on you for blatantly lying to the public!” » Musk wrote in a message to the Michigan Secretary of State. “You plan to remove ineligible voters only AFTER this election. This necessarily means that there are many more people registered to vote than there are eligible voters.”

Benson responded on X by stating: “Let’s be clear: @elonmusk is spreading dangerous misinformation. Here are the facts: There are no more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 voting-age citizens in our state. Musk puts forward a misleading figure that includes 1.2 million inactive records that are scheduled for deletion in accordance with the law.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

There were approximately 7.9 million people of voting age in Michigan as of July 1, 2023. This figure is 500,000 fewer than the total number of registered voters, or approximately 8.4 million. But that’s because the total registered voters include 1.2 million inactive voters. People classified as inactive have not voted for six consecutive years or failed to respond to a notice confirming their residency. Inactive voters can still vote.

Under state and federal law, voters are removed from the voter rolls only after they receive notice that their registration is subject to cancellation and two subsequent federal election cycles have passed without any response or voting activity. Voter registration cannot be canceled solely due to failure to vote.

This waiting period is why there are more registered voters than eligible voters in the state.

More than 339,000 voter registrations are expected to be canceled in 2025 and more than 257,000 in 2027. As of March 2024, Michigan has canceled more than 800,000 voter registrations since 2019, including 273,609 for possible changes of residence, 532,513 for deaths and 16,716 on demand. of the voter, according to his State Department.

The Republican National Committee and two individual voters filed a federal lawsuit in March against Benson and Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater for allegedly failing to “maintain clean and accurate voter registration records.” » The suit was dismissed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, who said the plaintiffs had no legal basis and, regardless, failed to present a plausible allegation.

Michigan is not the only state with large numbers of inactive voters on its rolls. Every state — except the six that are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act — must send voters a notice of cancellation and wait two federal election cycles before kicking out inactive voters.

The large number of inactive voters is a sign of strong roll maintenance, according to David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who served as co-chair of the Michigan Election Security Advisory Commission.

Read the full fact check at

— Melissa Goldin

Pennsylvania Trump Ballot Destruction Video Was Fabricated

CLAIM: Video shows ballots marked for Trump destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, while those for Vice President Kamala Harris were returned to their envelopes to be counted.

THE FACTS: The Bucks County Board of Elections identified the video as “fake” Thursday afternoon. And the FBI and other US intelligence agencies said the video was “made and amplified” by Russian actors.

“The envelope and documents depicted in this video are clearly not authentic documents owned by or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” the board said in a statement. The video was reported to law enforcement.

In a statement released Friday evening, the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the video was “This is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and fuel divisions among Americans. »

Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia, president and vice-president of the board of directors, respectively, called the video “dangerous misinformation” in a joint statement.

The Bucks County Prosecutor’s Office said in an emailed statement Thursday evening that they and the Yardley Borough Police Department investigated the video and “concluded that this video was fabricated with the aim of undermining confidence in the upcoming elections.”

The X user who popularized the inauthentic video has previously shared multiple stories created by a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop, raising questions about whether it came from a foreign influence campaign .

The FBI statement also warns that U.S. intelligence officials expect Russia “create and distribute additional media content that seeks to undermine confidence in the integrity of the election and divide Americans” in the coming weeks.

— Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

Voting machines in Georgia do not reverse votes

CLAIM: A Dominion voting machine in Whitfield County, Georgia, returned a vote for a candidate not marked by the voter.

THE FACTS: This is false. The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Records issued a press release on October 19, noting that the case involved one voter out of 6,000 ballots cast since early voting began on October 15. The ballot was spoiled and the voter cast a replacement which was counted. Officials said there were no problems with the voting machine.

Gabriel Sterling, director of operations for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said all reports they’ve seen so far of someone claiming their printed ballot did not reflect their selections on the touch screen voting machine were the result of voter error.

The statements followed a post from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed on X that a voting machine had altered a voter’s ballot in her Georgia district during early voting. She later updated her post to include a statement from county election officials explaining what happened and thanking them for resolving the issue.

Whitfield County election officials said in the news release that the voter noticed when reviewing his printed ballot that it did not reflect his choice. An election agent helped the voter mark their choice and vote.

“Georgia law allows voters to cancel their printed ballot if they make an incorrect selection on the ballot marking device. If a voter requests to change their choices, they immediately have the opportunity to make and print the correct choice. » » officials said.

They noted that if there was reason to suspect the machine had made a mistake, it would be taken out of service. No machines were taken out of service, county election officials said.

Find AP fact checks at