Election deniers suddenly silent after Trump takes lead

Election deniers spent the weeks before Election Day sounding the alarm online about the potential for widespread voter fraud that would negatively impact the results; This has never happened in modern elections, U.S. officials say. Former President Donald Trump claimed a “massive FRAUD” before the polls closed in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Then came the results showing that Trump had considerable power. Voices that have been shouting about election integrity for years have suddenly become whispers.

“Once it started to look like Trump was going to win, election denialism got very, very quiet,” said Welton Chang, co-founder and CEO of Pyrra Technologies, a company that tracks fringe social networks.

Experts say the sudden silence from election deniers following Trump’s victory on Tuesday underscores the narrative’s long-standing purpose as a tool for Trump to regain power and challenge the election results. When it suddenly became clear that denying the election result was politically useless, influencers and Trump allies seemed content to let it go.

The misconception that the 2020 election was stolen has persisted beyond social media, fueling a broad movement of “election integrity” activists. Over the past four years, many have dedicated themselves to “fixing” the voting system to prevent future “stealing”; He signed on as a poll observer, election worker and even an election board member.

During Tuesday’s vote, some figures in the movement spread online posts claiming that activists had found evidence of problems.

But on Wednesday, one of the senior leaders portrayed Trump’s victory as the result of work to improve the system.

“To the thousands of election integrity warriors: Thank you,” read a post Wednesday on social platform X by Cleta Mitchell, one of the movement’s most prominent leaders.

In an interview later Wednesday, Mitchell said the vigilance of fellow activists “prevented a lot of the serious things that happened in 2020 from happening again.” Asked if he had a message for those who might see the acceptance of this year’s results as evidence of partisan motives, he said they needed to “get over the Trump imbalance syndrome.”

Claims of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania and other swing states rose early on Election Day but began to decline as the night progressed, according to an analysis by the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.

Dozens of far-right channels identified by The New York Times spent days on Telegram questioning the integrity of the vote and vowing to take action, with force if necessary, to prevent what they saw as fraud. As the results were announced, the tone changed, first cautiously, then cheerfully.

“Most of our Proud Boy poll workers have returned home,” read a message posted at 6:35 p.m. from the North Carolina chapter of the extremist group involved in the violence on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. “Despite what the media tells you, based on what they saw, they overwhelmingly said they were confident Trump would win North Carolina today.”

Another notable example of the sudden shift in action on Tuesday night was an issue in Milwaukee. Social posts filled with accusations and suspicions followed election administrators discovering that 13 ballots were not adequately secured before counting. Officials said they had to recalculate 31,000 votes.

Mitchell cited the incident as an example of the improvements his movement has brought. “Instead of putting cardboard in the windows, ‘we will recount all the ballots to make sure they are accurate,'” Milwaukee elections director said in post X.

Arizona election denier Seth Keshel, who has spent years criss-crossing the country claiming voter fraud, found a way to thread the needle: He said he believed Trump won fairly but suggested there might still be some fraud in the primary voting races. Democrats were ahead.

“I believe the outcome is correct,” Keshel said in an interview. “I do not believe that every state is right.”

On Some posts misleadingly cited increases in vote totals as evidence; however, this can occur during any election and does not constitute malfeasance.

According to a review by NewsGuard, a company that tracks misinformation online, some of the loudest voices questioning the outcome of the presidential race at Wednesday morning X were coming from the left; Theft movements spread widely with Trump’s support after the 2020 elections.

NewsGuard found the hashtag #DoNotConcedeKamala was mentioned more than 386,406 times as of 3 p.m. Wednesday. Many posts echoed claims once made by far-right agitators, including speculation that foreign rivals interfered in the election or that ballots were somehow mass destroyed.

“The spread is undeniable, but it hasn’t become mainstream,” said Steven Brill, co-founder of NewsGuard. “The most prominent examples of left-wing claims that the election was rigged come from more obscure X users.”

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