Early vote counts after the polls closed in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff are evidence of election fraud.
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Vote count changes after polls closed in Georgia aren’t evidence of election fraud
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The changing percentage of votes each candidate received in the Georgia U.S. Senate election runoff reflects counties reporting their election results. It’s not evidence of fraud.
Incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker by nearly 99,000 votes in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff election, according to unofficial results. Yet some social media posts claim that the race was stolen.
"Polls are closed. Break out the suite cases full of ballots," said one Dec. 6 Facebook post, alluding to baseless claims that there were suitcases full of fraudulent ballots in the 2020 election.
The post shows what appears to be a screenshot of a Georgia map detailing election results. The image includes the words "polls are closed," and vote tallies reflecting Walker with 1,309,708 votes, or 50.04%, and Warnock with 1,307,714 votes, or 49.96%.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
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Unofficial results reported as of Dec. 13 by Georgia’s secretary of state show 1,720,962 votes for Walker and 1,819,936 for Warnock.
The discrepancy between those numbers and the numbers in the screenshot is not evidence of fraud. As counties count their votes, it is normal to see a change in the percentage of votes each candidate received.
We can’t vouch for the authenticity of the screenshot in the Facebook post, but more votes were initially counted for Walker than Warnock as results started to come in after the polls closed. However, the more precincts that reported their results, the clearer it became that Warnock was leading the race.
Claims suggesting election fraud in Georgia lack evidence. We rate them Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post, Dec. 6, 2022
Georgia Secretary of State, Dec. 6 runoff election results, last updated Dec. 13, 2022
PolitiFact, No, early Georgia election results aren’t evidence of fraud, Dec. 8, 2022
The Washington Post, No one takes the lead after polls close. Let’s stop saying that, Dec. 7, 2022
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Vote count changes after polls closed in Georgia aren’t evidence of election fraud
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