Old, unrelated video shared as voting machines being 'rigged' in Pennsylvania

What is the claim?

A video circulating on social media during the U.S. presidential elections on November 5, 2024, claims to show election fraud and vote tampering in Pennsylvania. The video depicts authorities handling ballot boxes in an office room, with an overlay reading, “Breaking the seals and removing memory cards and reprogramming memory cards.”

The video was shared with the caption, “FIVE Trump-leaning counties in Pennsylvania are experiencing Maricopa County, WIDESPREAD MACHINE FAILURES. This time, ES&S and MicroVote partnered up with Dominion Rigging Systems.” Archive links for these posts can be found here and here. 

 
                                     Screenshots of the social media posts. (X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is from the 2022 midterm elections in Arizona, not Pennsylvania, and is unrelated to the 2024 presidential election. It does not show election tampering or machine failures.

As of this report’s publication, both AP and CNN have called the election in favor of Trump.

What does the video show?

A reverse image search led to a May 31, 2023, post on X (formerly Twitter) from Maricopa County (archived here). The county clarified that the video shows the installation of new memory cards, a routine process before every election. Maricopa County also responded to claims that the video (archived here) depicted "secret testing of tabulation equipment" by noting that if the process had been secret, the footage would not have been live-streamed.

 
X posts by Maricopa County.(Source: X/Screenshot)

In 2023,  the Associated Press reported that Matt Roberts, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Election Department, confirmed that the video shows workers on October 14, 2022, following the standard procedure of installing new memory cards and running test ballots to ensure the system is functioning correctly.

What had happened in 2022?

The post from Maricopa County included screenshots from court filings related to a complaint by Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. After Lake lost the November 8, 2022, election to Democrat Katie Hobbs, she challenged the results, claiming election rigging. However, in May 2023, the court dismissed Lake's attempts to prove rigging in the election.

In response to Lake’s allegation of "secret testing," Maricopa County clarified in court filings that on October 14, 17, and 18, 2022, the county installed new memory cards containing the certified Election Program, which had undergone logic and accuracy testing on each tabulator. The county further stated that a small number of ballots were tabulated on each machine to ensure proper memory card installation. These procedures were recorded on live cameras at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center.

Lake had also claimed that "260 out of 446" tabulators failed this supposed "secret testing," a point echoed in the viral posts. However, the county argued that Lake misunderstood the machine logs, assuming that errors such as “ballot misread” or “paper jam” indicated machine malfunctions. The county clarified that these entries were routine and part of both the testing process and normal voting procedures.

Additionally, in response to Lake’s assertion that the county did not conduct logic and accuracy testing on the vote center tabulators used on Election Day, Maricopa County stated that the testing was carried out on October 11, 2022. State and county officials, as well as representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties, observed and certified the testing process.

False claims about voting machines

Claims that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Joe Biden have been debunked. In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion over $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit after repeatedly airing false accusations about the company. There is no evidence that MicroVote or Election Systems & Software collaborated with Dominion to manipulate voting machines.

The viral post perpetuates the discredited narrative of election rigging and widespread voter fraud, a theory that gained traction in 2020 with claims that voting machines were used to steal the election from Donald Trump. Logically Facts has previously fact-checked several similar claims, which can be read here, here, and here.

The verdict

The video dates back to 2022 and shows the routine process of installing new memory cards and running test ballots to ensure the system is functioning properly. This process is carried out before every election. The video does not show election tampering or efforts to rig the election.

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.