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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke January 6, 2025

No, 22 states didn’t fail to certify the 2024 presidential election

If Your Time is short

  • All 50 states certified the presidential election and Jan. 6, Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. 

On Jan. 6, Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. 

But some social media users are claiming that not all states certified the election. 

"Just watched that 22 states will not be certifying the election tomorrow," a Jan. 5 Threads post said. "Yay! January is going to be crazy!"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The vast majority of states have deadlines to certify their election results, and all 50 states did certify their 2024 election results weeks before Jan. 5. 

When federal lawmakers convened Jan. 6, they read aloud the tally of electoral votes from each state and the election results were certified.

Some social media users pointed to the National Archives’ website to support the claim that not all states had certified the election because not all so-called certificates of ascertainment had been uploaded to the site. 

We asked the archives about the claim and a Jan. 6 statement from its public and media communications staff said that the agency had "received all certificates of vote, which are paper. After we scan and convert the paper certificates to PDFs, making sure they meet accessibility requirements, we upload the files to our website." 

As of midday Jan. 6, they were all there.

States also send official paper "certificates of vote" to the U.S. Senate, the statement said, "which are used when Congress counts the vote." 

We rate claims 22 states didn’t certify the election False. 

 

Our Sources

Threads post, Jan. 5, 2025

National Archives, 2024 Electoral College results, visited Jan. 6, 2025

National Archives, Electoral College Timeline of Events, visited Jan. 6, 2025

United States Election Assistance Commission, Election Results, Canvass, and Certification, Nov. 4, 2024

PBS News, WATCH: Congress certifies Trump reelection with electoral vote count, Jan. 6, 2025

The Associated Press, Congress certifies Trump won the election without challenge, in stark contrast to the 2021 violence, Jan. 6, 2025

WJAR, Electoral College of Rhode Island officially certifies presidential results, Dec. 17, 2024

USA Today, When will 2024 election results be certified? Here's the deadline for each state, Nov. 11, 2024

Spotlight PA, Pa. certifies 2024 election results as Trump electors prepare to meet in Harrisburg, Dec. 4, 2024

Statement from the National Archives Public and Media Communications staff, Jan. 6, 2025

 

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No, 22 states didn’t fail to certify the 2024 presidential election

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