Facts Matter: Trump posts false voting claim on Election Day

The midterm elections brought out a flurry of false information, and some came from former President Donald Trump.

"The Absentee Ballot situation in Detroit is REALLY BAD," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "People are showing up to Vote only to be told, 'sorry, you have already voted.' This is happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well. Protest, Protest, Protest!"

The post was shared on other social media sites.

But Trump's claim is fake news, according to PolitiFact. It was disputed almost immediately by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

"This isn't true," she tweeted an hour after Trump's post. "Please don't spread lies to foment or encourage political violence in our state. Or anywhere. Thanks."

There was a glitch that caused a slowdown in some Detroit precincts, Michigan secretary of state spokesperson Jake Rollow told PolitiFact.

When an election worker first entered the information of a voter who hadn't cast a ballot, the system erroneously indicated the voter had been issued an absentee ballot. The election official worked around the problem so the ballot would be processed.

"No voter was turned away," Rollow said. "They weren't told that they already voted absentee and they weren't turned away."

"In all circumstances, eligible voters were able to vote," the Michigan Department of State said in a Nov. 8 statement.

Detroit Department of Elections spokesperson Matt Friedman told PolitiFact the glitch caused delays in at least three precincts.

Video doesn't show fraud

A video purporting to show voter fraud is making the rounds on social media. In the clip, an election official is seen sitting at a table with a stack of ballots, writing something on each one.

"Rigging ballots live on TV," a Twitter user wrote above the shared video.

Another tweet read, "Philadelphia. Poll worker marking ballots."

The video is real, but the charge of something nefarious going on is false, according to Reuters.

It's actually an election inspector initialing ballots at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin - not Philadelphia. Wisconsin statutes state that two inspectors must initial the ballots in a section titled "Ballot issued by."

The clip is taken from video aired on Fox News' "The Faulkner Focus." Host Harris Faulkner at one point says, "This is live in Madison, Wisconsin."

"(The video) shows a poll worker initialing and indicating the ward number on the back of the ballot," a spokesperson for the city of Madison clerk's office told Reuters. "A second poll worker will add their initials to each ballot just before handing the ballot to a voter."

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonnell took to Twitter to respond to the miscaptioned video.

"This poll worker is doing the boring routine work of initialing ballots and circling the ward number to hand to voters so they can vote," he tweeted. "What a scandal."

'Missing uncle' post a scam

A recent Facebook post appears to be someone concerned about the safety of their uncle.

"URGENT- MISSING! My uncle who is 80 drove out yesterday around 5:30 p.m. from Timmins," the Nov. 1 post read. "There is a silver alert activated as well. Please help us get him home safely and quickly as well as their dog Brandi."

The post, shared more than 2,000 times, includes a photo of an elderly man with a dog. The comments are disabled.

But there's no missing uncle; the post is a scam, according to USA Today. Similar posts claim the same uncle is missing but the location is changed to Kingsport, Tennessee, or Dallas, Georgia.

The man in the post appears to be Vern English and the photo is taken from a GoFundMe page set up for him for the purpose of "avoiding homelessness with two dogs."

"For the record, the man in the post has not been reported to the Timmins Police Service as missing," said Marc Depatie, a spokesperson for the Timmins Police Department in Ontario.

"The motivation for posting such false information is not clear, or genuine, or trustworthy."

Crowd not on seismograph

The 2022 World Series recently concluded with the Houston Astros defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

During Game 3, played in Philadelphia, the Phillies hit five home runs, and the fans went wild.

"Harper and Bohm home runs are literally registering on the Penn State University Brandywine seismograph station. The city is physically shaking," read a tweet posted after the game. The post includes an image of a seismograph readout with two major spikes labeled "Harper HR" and "Bohm HR."

But that didn't happen, according to The Associated Press.

Penn State seismic network manager Kyle Homman told the AP there wasn't any increased seismic activity that evening. He also said the spikes on the image were only a few minutes apart, which doesn't match the timeline of the game.

Homman said to register the crowd noise, the seismograph would need to be within a mile of the stadium. The Phillies ballpark is nearly 20 miles from Penn State's Brandywine campus.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.