No, ballots counted after Election Day don’t mean elections were stolen

Election officials continue to count ballots in many states two weeks out from the 2024 election, sparking unfounded theories about suspicious "ballot dumps" and accusations of election interference. 

One Instagram user highlighted several states and districts in which late-counted votes favored Democrats, claiming election officials are "flipping the down-ballot seats" for Democrats. 

"There are still massive ballot dumps happening eleven days after the election," the person said in an Instagram Reel posted Nov. 18. "They really thought we wouldn’t notice." 

Later in the video, she said, "Since Trump won, they really thought we wouldn’t catch them flipping the down-ballot seats." 

The video featured X posts commenting on elections in Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Alaska. Some of those posts said corruption or election interference was to blame for the changing vote totals.

Millions of ballots have been counted in the two weeks following the election, as officials have worked to verify vote totals and count ballots that were not counted or had not been received by Election Day. In some cases, votes in these close races have changed which candidate led. 

But the late addition of votes doesn’t signal anything nefarious. Election experts told us these are a normal part of the election, and they show the process is working. 

States have different rules for when officials can begin processing and counting mail-in ballots, and when ballots can be accepted, National Association of Election Officials Chief Programs Officer Tammy Patrick said. Voters in many states also have opportunities to fix errors in their ballots, and provisional ballots — which are cast when a person’s eligibility to vote is in question — need time to be verified and counted.

Some states do not allow election officials to begin opening mail-in ballots to be counted until Election Day. Several states also accept absentee ballots that were postmarked by Election Day but arrived at the election office later. 

"It’s not evidence of fraud," said Jay Young, senior director of voting and democracy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan voting advocacy group. "In fact, it’s evidence that election administrators are doing their job and making sure that every vote is counted — every eligible vote is counted, and all the ineligible votes aren’t."

Poll watchers from both parties and nonpartisan groups are also generally present when ballots are counted and certified, Young said, so late-counted ballots aren’t being tabulated in secret.  

Vote tallies are unofficial and subject to change until a state officially certifies its vote total. In most states, the certification deadline is more than two weeks after the November election.

The Instagram video pointed to late ballot additions in some Pennsylvania counties, where Senate candidate Republican Dave McCormick and incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey are fighting over the eligibility of provisional ballots and certain mail-in ballots. A state law-triggered recount in the U.S. Senate race is underway.

Most of the votes in Pennsylvania were counted on election night, but in some large counties there were still thousands of absentee ballots that were counted after Election Day, and officials in every county had to adjudicate an estimated 60,000 provisional ballots. Provisional ballots require a hearing for county officials and campaigns to weigh in on whether they should be counted. 

One post focused on Bucks County, where Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s narrow lead shrank as ballots were counted. Bucks County officials voted Nov. 11 to count mail ballots without dates on their outer envelopes.

Another post highlighted a "5k ballot dump" from Montgomery County that narrowed McCormick’s lead over Casey statewide. Montgomery County did add about 5,000 ballots to its count Nov. 16, according to archived results from The New York Times’ website, but the addition was not unexpected. 

Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija said Nov. 6 there were an estimated 10,000 ballots yet to be counted, including mail-in ballots, military and overseas ballots and provisional ballots.

Some counties decided to count absentee ballots that lacked proper dates despite previous state Supreme Court guidance saying those ballots should not be counted. The Supreme Court ruled again on Nov. 18 that mail-in ballots without proper dates should not be counted, and ordered counties not to include them in their totals.

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A Democrat taking the lead in a razor-thin California U.S. House race is also not a sign of election fraud. The Instagram video’s creator pointed to an X post that claimed "there is NO WAY" Democrat Derek Tran could have taken the lead in the 45th Congressional District race, calling California "corrupt." 

Tran led by 397 votes over incumbent Republican Michelle Steel as of midday Nov. 21, according to the California secretary of state’s office. 

California has historically taken weeks to count ballots, so it’s unsurprising that ballots are being counted more than two weeks after Election Day. The state allows mailed absentee ballots that were postmarked by Election Day to be accepted up to seven days after the election, and it allows voters to correct or "cure" any errors on their ballots until two days before the election is certified Dec. 3.  

Steel led by 10,000 votes in the 45th District on Nov. 6, but Tran took the lead on Nov. 16, when Orange County counted 1,154 new ballots in the contest, with 54% of those votes going to Tran. Los Angeles and Orange counties have provided regular updates about the ballots left to be counted in the race, so it’s clear where the ballots are coming from. 

"There are chain of custody records that demonstrate when these were picked up from the post office, when they were received by the elections office," Patrick said. "There’s chain of custody protocols that go through. And so it’s not the case that there’s anything new here, it’s just it takes a long time to process some of these after Election Day." 

Less than 1,000 votes separated the North Carolina Supreme Court candidates as of Nov. 21, and Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin requested a recount Nov. 19. 

Griffin led the count by about 10,000 votes shortly after the election, but the margin closed as additional ballots were counted the following week, and Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs now holds a narrow lead. 

The Instagram video featured an X post that said Riggs overtaking Griffin is "what stealing an Election looks like." 

Absentee ballots that arrived on Election Day, military and overseas absentee ballots that arrived by Nov. 14, and provisional ballots were all counted after Election Day and contributed to the margin changing. Voters in Hurricane Helene-affected areas were able to submit their absentee ballots to any county board of elections office this year, and those votes were also more likely to be counted after Election Day, North Carolina’s Board of Elections reported.

On Nov. 19, Griffin filed election protests challenging more than 60,000 ballots, according to a North Carolina Republican Party press release. The Raleigh-based News & Observer reported the protests argued counties had counted ballots from voters who were unregistered, had been serving felony sentences or who died before Election Day.  

The State Board of Elections is asking lawyers for the campaigns to provide more information, and asking counties to investigate specific claims to see if irregularities exist. But Riggs overtaking Griffin does not itself prove any problems with the count. 

"No, it’s not evidence that you should be concerned about the process; again, it’s evidence that you should be happy that the process is working as it was designed to," Young said.

Another X post in the Instagram Reel from conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza alleged a 3 a.m. "ballot dump" lost Republicans the Wisconsin Senate race and said Republicans should "sound the alarm." 

We fact-checked a similar claim that a late night influx of votes was evidence of fraud already, and rated it Pants on Fire. Wisconsin election workers cannot begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day, so the early morning ballot tranche was expected. The addition represented ballots that were known to be tabulated in Milwaukee and had not yet been reported. 

The video highlighted a Nov. 16 X post that said Democrats had won a controlling coalition in Alaska’s House of Representatives, with the video’s creator questioning why "only the Dems" benefit from "late ballot dumps." 

Alaska takes particularly long to count because of unique factors: It’s geographically rural and has hard-to-reach towns that may slow mail delivery. The state allows absentee ballots to be received up to 10 days postelection. 

Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system means it could take longer for a winner to be determined. 

That the party in control of Alaska’s House of Representatives was not known until more than a week after the election reflects how Alaska counts ballots. It doesn’t signal election interference. 

An Instagram video claimed "ballot dumps" showed election officials are improperly "flipping" elections for Democrats.

A patchwork of state and local laws regulates how ballots are counted across the country, and each state has rules that affect how fast ballots are counted. Unprocessed absentee ballots, provisional ballots and late-arriving mail ballots are all more likely to be counted after Election Day. 

The late additions of votes are a sign that every vote is being counted and states are following regular election procedures. These changing results are far from fraud; they reveal state and local election officials’ efforts to follow, not subvert, the law.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!