One of Athena Strategies’ core missions is to amplify understanding and civil discourse about elections in the U.S. – seeking to counter the spread of harmful mis and disinformation and working to rebuild trust in our electoral system.
Towards this end – Welcome to Misinformation Roundup, your periodic bulletin of viral rumors that never happened! Through Misinformation Roundup, we aim to debunk falsehoods and empower individuals with accurate information, fostering a healthier democracy.
Here are a few pieces of mis and disinformation that circulated on social media in the last few weeks, along with clear explanations of why they’re false.
- A recent Instagram post falsely claimed that President Joe Biden signed an executive order allowing ineligible convicts and illegal immigrants to vote. USA Today fact-checked this piece of misinformation, confirming that President Biden did not issue any executive order like this, and has not asserted any authority to do so. Election experts also confirmed to USA Today that none of the 50 U.S. states allow non-citizens to vote in federal elections.
- Recent posts have falsely alleged that the 2020 election was the first election where it took more than 24 hours to count every vote. In fact, the opposite is true- there has never been a U.S. election where every vote was counted in 24 hours. As experts told PolitiFact and USA Today, election officials in every state must follow strict procedures in the days and weeks after Election Day to count, audit, reconcile, and certify official ballot counts.
- Fabricated social media posts recently circulated claiming that Democrats are encouraging the entry of undocumented migrants into the United States to shift votes in their favor. AFP Fact Check disproved this, speaking with election experts who confirmed that there is no evidence to support these claims. In addition, newly arrived migrants do not have the ability to vote, and U.S. Citizenship sites confirm that it usually takes at least 5 years to become a citizen.
Misinformation is a critical threat to our democracy, and Athena Strategies is seeking your help! Athena Strategies encourages our readers to actively scrutinize the information you encounter. Should you come across a piece of content that you suspect to be misinformation, please reach out to us. In addition, please let us know if you are aware of helpful election-related resources we should add to our resource library, and please feel free to share the resources linked on our page with your friends and colleagues.
We live in an age where it is sadly much easier to spread false narratives than to explain the many layers of election security and integrity processes that go into every step of our elections. To combat this, we need your help! It will take every one of us to counter misinformation and build trust. Together, we can stop the spread of false information and strengthen trust in our democratic process.