Live Updates: Snopes Coverage of the Aftermath of the 2020 U.S. Election, 11/04/2020
As states counted ballots on Nov. 4, misinformation spread rapidly online. Here are facts.
- Published
Voting in the 2020 U.S. Election may be over, but the misinformation keeps on ticking. Never stop fact-checking. Follow our post-election coverage here.
This liveblog is complete — but our job’s not done. Read the liveblog for Nov. 5.
Claims from Nov. 5 | Moving Truck at White House? | Detroit Voter Fraud? | National Stress Awareness Day | Trump Warned Against Recounts in 2012 | AP Reports Biden Wins Michigan | 40k Georgia Ballots Rejected? | Trump’s ‘Major Fraud’ Speech, Fact-Checked | Trump Wins Pennsylvania? | Biden Beats Obama’s Vote Record? | What Would a Presidential Transition Look Like? | No, Biden Did Not ‘Admit’ Voter Fraud | Biden Wins Wisconsin | Ballots Marked With Sharpies Disqualified? | More Votes Than Wisconsin Registered Voters? | Did Biden Receive 100% of New Votes in Michigan? | Stalin: ‘It’s Not the Vote of People Who Count…’ | Aria DiMezzo Loses | Trump Falsely Claims Victory With Millions of Votes Uncounted | Background and Previous Claims | Claims from Election Day
The voting is done — now all that’s left to do is count.
As the internet’s premier fact-checking site, We’ve been gauging the truth behind the candidates’ claims since the beginning of the race (see a collection of fact checks involving Trump here and Biden here), as well as rumors about the voting process and what Americans can expect in this historic election. And on Election Day itself, we checked misinformation as it was happening.
Now, we’ve got new fact checks to combat misinformation about the election’s results. We introduced “rumor alerts” to warn readers where they should tread lightly. We’ll use those posts to send up a flare about rumors/misinformation for which we may not have enough information for a complete fact check with a truth rating, but that we want to warn audiences about anyway.
The election process extends days, if not weeks, after Americans cast votes on election night. Even during typical cycles when a pandemic isn’t limiting in-person polling and likely to cause a surge in mail-in voting — a method of ballot-casting that can take officials longer to tally — states are unable to count all ballots and legally certify results in one night.
Nonetheless, news reporters often “call” races on election night based on votes counted shortly after polls close. Those media reports are projections, not legally sanctioned results — and as of the morning of Nov. 4, the results in several states remain unclear.
Snopes’ team of reporters and editors will monitor those reports closely since they could erroneously bolster beliefs that one candidate has won and delegitimize the official vote-counting process after election night. Already, the Trump campaign is trying to weaken Americans’ trust in the process by repeating unsubstantiated claims of criminal activity — when, in reality, cases of voter fraud are minuscule in comparison to the number of ballots cast in U.S. elections.
Additionally, if election night results lean in Biden’s favor, new problems could arise. Trump has repeatedly declined to commit to accepting the results of the election if he loses, which could result in an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
Make sense of what you’re hearing and seeing after the election with Snopes’ live fact checking below.
Refresh this page for updates.
Moving Truck at White House?
11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT
Not necessarily the most reliable indicator of election results. #Election2020 https://t.co/bOxeOF14HP
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 5, 2020
Detroit Voter Fraud?
10:40pm ET/7:40pm PT
Social media posts seemed at first glance to bear out Trump's accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. https://t.co/OLKxsGbIMi
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 5, 2020
National Stress Awareness Day
7:47pm ET/4:47pm PT
The claim is not entirely baseless #2020ELECTION. https://t.co/iNI2BiGXKK
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 5, 2020
Trump Warned Against Recounts in 2012
6:27pm ET/3:27pm PT
There's always a tweet… #Election2020 https://t.co/e3qRfpVhM5
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
AP Reports Biden Wins Michigan
6:15pm ET/3:15pm PT
The Associated Press reported that Biden’s victory in Michigan pushed him to 264 Electoral College votes, six short of the 270 needed to win the White House. https://t.co/P4InyznPz9
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
40k Georgia Ballots Rejected?
5:34pm ET/2:34pm PT
❌No, Dekalb County did not reject 40k mail-in ballots. The county themselves said that only about 200 ballots needed to be cured. #Election2020 https://t.co/hYd3Lyz28c
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Trump’s ‘Major Fraud’ Speech, Fact-Checked
5:21pm ET/2:21pm PT
An extraordinary, unprecedented departure from the norms of American democracy, and a litany of outrageously false and grossly misleading claims. Here’s @snopes’ point-by-point dissection of Trump’s early morning press conference: https://t.co/2n1UY7c3Gb
— Dan Mac Guill (@danmacg) November 4, 2020
RUMOR ALERT: Trump Declared Winner in Pennsylvania?
4:56pm ET/1:56pm PT
? Warning! ? While several high-profile accounts associated with the Trump campaign declared victory in Pennsylvania, no credible news outlets had reported a winner at the time they posted it. #Election2020 https://t.co/2l0EEpMCUU
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Biden Beats Obama’s Vote Record?
4:46pm ET/1:46pm PT
✅ True. Though these numbers remain unofficial until each state certifies its count, Biden has comfortably broken the popular vote record set by Obama. #Election2020 https://t.co/3bhAUUEFO6
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
What Would a Presidential Transition Look Like?
4:37pm ET/1:37pm PT
Addressing the country this afternoon, Biden expressed confidence that he would be America's next president. Here's what a presidential transition looks like, should that happen, pending the vote-counting process:https://t.co/27o2tpERct #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/aYIjXsGstQ
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
No, Biden Did Not ‘Admit’ Voter Fraud
3:46pm ET/12:46pm PT
❌ False. The full video shows that Biden did not “admit” to perpetrating voter fraud, but rather was referring to his campaign’s efforts to protect voters from what they presented as voter intimidation and false claims of voter fraud. #Election2020 https://t.co/QGIQJceoLa
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Biden Won Wisconsin
3:10pm ET/12:10pm PT
Trump’s campaign has requested a recount. #Election2020 https://t.co/M631VWc22c
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Were Trump Ballots Marked with Sharpies Disqualified in Arizona?
2:39pm ET/11:39am PT
❌ False. #Election2020 https://t.co/Otd2rg2EL3
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Did Biden Receive 100% of 128,000 New Votes in Michigan?
2:17pm ET/11:17am PT
The error seemed to come from a typo regarding the vote count in Shiawassee County #2020Election. https://t.co/4xWScFVLZv
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
More Votes Than Wisconsin Registered Voters?
12:14pm ET/9:14am PT
❌ No, Wisconsin did not count more votes than 2020 registered voters. The viral tweet compared the vote count from 2020 with the number of registered voters from 2018. #Election2020 https://t.co/ecW701HKYU pic.twitter.com/m6KX7rgXg2
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Stalin: ‘It’s Not the Vote of People Who Count…’
11:53am ET/8:53am PT
This quote, now popular among readers on our site, has been a perennial internet favorite since the 2000 election — but the story behind it is pretty complicated. #Election2020 https://t.co/Di6Dx6gCb7
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Aria DiMezzo Loses
11:20am ET/8:20am PT
As reported in the @Keene_Sentinel, Aria DiMezzo has lost her bid for sheriff of Cheshire County, New Hampshire. #Election2020 https://t.co/aLYmTVd8nQ
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Trump Falsely Claims Victory With Millions of Votes Uncounted
10:09am ET/7:09am PT
As of this writing, no winner has been projected, let alone declared, and some jurisdictions have stated they won’t even begin counting some ballots until Nov. 4 #Election2020 https://t.co/VEvLbXpgBd
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 4, 2020
Background and Previous Claims
8:16am ET/5:16am PT
While we get started, remember that many of the claims circulating today will probably be rumors we've already looked into.
We've collected the most common claims we've seen this campaign here, organized by category. #ElectionDay https://t.co/3p1ny6eKWr
— snopes.com (@snopes) November 3, 2020