Fact check: Examining viral narratives after the US midterm elections

As Democrats celebrate major gains, false claims about election fraud have spread. Viral posts alleging illegal voting and election rigging are intended to fuel doubt about the integrity of the vote. DW checks the facts.

Democrats swept to victory in a closely watched US midterm election , delivering a strong rebuke to President Donald Trump and his Republican party. At the same time, social media was awash with false claims that the election was fraudulent, including doctored screengrabs from media outlets, invented stories of illegal ballots and accusations of vote tampering. Even as the votes are still being counted in some races, DW Fact check took a closer look at some election day disinformation.

Claim : "A highly coordinated scheme to steal an election is happening in real time," a right-wing media outlet claimed in a X post, viewed more than 700,000 times. Attached was a security camera video showing a man helping voters at a polling booth in Lewiston, Maine, flipping through papers, marking ballots and speaking to them as they wrote.