Oh, Now Democrats Are Complaining About Election Fraud

Did Elon Musk rig the election in Trump's favor? Now Democrats are talking about voter fraud. Welcome to America Uncovered, I'm Chris Chappell. Remember when tons of people on the right complained that Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate? Oh wait, people still do. Well, with Trump having won the 2024 election, many on the left are now acknowledging he won because they believe in elections, even when their candidate loses. Just kidding, many are claiming Trump's election win was illegitimate, which is why hashtags like TrumpCheated, DoNotConcedeKamala, and SwingStateHandRecount started trending. People think it was just so utterly impossible for Trump to succeed like he did. They wonder how in the world Trump could get every single swing state and the popular vote to get results like this. Maybe it's because only a few months ago, Kamala Harris was seen as an ineffective, unpopular vice president, thrust into this race by an unpopular president whose mental faculties were declining despite Democrats trying to hide it through gaslighting? Nah, the only explanation is Trump must have cheated. But the plot thickens, because they claim Elon Musk, who endorsed and supported Trump, funded a massive election fraud scheme. And here's the proof! It looks like lots of people are buying into this particular idea. And what they're saying is that Musk's Starlink satellites rigged the ballots in a massive case of fraud by uploading votes in swing states in Trump's favor. While a bit crazy, it is refreshing to hear a conspiracy theory about satellites that doesn't involve Jewish people setting forest fires. California and other swing states were able to use Starlink in order to tally up and to count ballot votes or voting ballots in their state, okay? Why were they connected to the internet? Now, all of a sudden, he wants to come in here and talk about, oh, well, I'm going to go ahead and help you because I know, you know, there's a lot more people voting and it's going to be difficult. This and this and that. There's not a lot of people that volunteer to help. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, let me help you to tally up the votes in order to be able to help you guys and make things easier for you. Um, excuse me, but I'm pretty sure California is not a swing state. California is a swing state the same way that a horse is a potato. They also claim it goes much deeper due to a cover-up. They even say Musk may have destroyed Starlink satellites in an effort to get rid of evidence of him cheating in the election. What would make them think that? Well, this is likely in reference to the Starlink satellite that fell from the sky over the weekend. You know, no biggie. So is there any truth to these wild claims? Are we in another season of voter fraud? Will Democrats stage an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6? Hey, looks like it's time for another segment of Wait, Is That True? First, let's get this out of the way. US voting machines are not normally connected to the internet. States like California actually prohibit voting systems from connecting to the internet at any time. They also cannot use any wireless technology, which includes satellites. This is something California takes seriously. Its voting system certification explicitly spells out that machines are not externally networked. So they never connect to the internet? Man, I'm jealous of how well-adjusted voting machines must be. But it's not just California. Swing states have similar election security protocols to ensure voting equipment is never connected to the internet during ballot tabulation. Speaking for North Carolina, Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections, said satellite-based internet devices were not used to tabulate or upload vote counts in North Carolina. But this hasn't really calmed election denier fears. Some people still believe voting equipment was connected to the internet for counting votes. This is actually very similar to claims made by Republicans in the 2020 election. And there were some cases of voting systems being... mistakenly connected to the internet. But for the 2024 election, the claim comes from this local news segment featuring Tulare County, California, as proof of Starlink election meddling. Registrar Michelle Baldwin says access to connectivity was improved this year thanks to Starlink satellite internet. She adds early technical difficulties with the tabulator machine were quickly fixed and did not impact vote count. Wow, that does sound a bit suspicious, doesn't it? So what gives? Chances are the local news segment was referring to the way Starlink helped with the county's electronic poll book software, which is a completely different thing from vote counting or tabulation. And what exactly is electronic poll book software? It's a digital system used by election officials to manage and verify voter information at polling stations. Do the people making these claims know the difference between vote tabulation and poll book software? I wouldn't count on it. Like and subscribe. Electronic poll book software systems don't tabulate votes. They just sync voter information with the state voter database. As for Tulare County, it uses DFM for its Election Information Management System to check in voters, confirm voter status, and to void a voter's original ballot and issue a new one via a VPN. Still not convinced? A senior election analyst for the OSET Institute, which focuses on election integrity, told PolitiFact, most of the rural part of the county has little to no access to broadband, and Starlink was used to have the electronic poll books connected to a county voter database, adding that vote tabulators weren't connected to Starlink's satellite internet. To be fair, I can get why some people might have thought Starlink was involved in tabulation. The way the story was framed didn't exactly help much. Unfortunately, watching the news to be informed is like drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes to whiten your teeth. And as far as we know, there is no evidence of massive election interference. Other than, of course, a lot of people feel like there is. And that's probably totally admissible in court. The director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency didn't see any. She said there was no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure. Neither had top officials in swing states. And what about the allegations of Musk destroying evidence? US Space Force data shows that SpaceX removed the Starlink satellite from operation in August, and then abandoned it on October 13th. This was way before the election took place. Of course, it was Trump that created the Space Force. Wake up, sheeple! Space isn't real! Oh wait, that's a topic for another episode. So there we have it, right? No more confusion? As they say, when one door closes, another opens. So no, people still have tons of questions about the integrity of the election. One question that remains is how millions of Democratic voters seem to have disappeared. So did a rapture happen? No. That's basically just deportation, and Democrats don't really support that. Oddly enough, this is a question that many on the right have been asking as well. Depending on where you stand politically, you interpret this very differently. Either it's proof Trump cheated by removing millions of votes, or Biden cheated back in 2020 by adding millions of votes out of thin air. The choice is yours. Because no one just wins elections anymore, silly. It's all cheating. Unless a side you like wins. Then it's fair and square. So what could explain millions of missing votes? Well, that's a simple one. Not enough votes were counted by the time that chart I just shared went viral. It was based on preliminary vote totals, not the final results. To explain further, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research pointed out shortly after Trump's victory was announced that votes were still being counted in many states, including millions in California alone. And that is still the case as of this recording. We're still seeing the numbers change. On Election Day, Harris got over 67 million votes, while Trump got over 72 million. But as of November 12th, Harris has over 72 million votes, while Trump has over 75 million. That's all to say, give it some time before we can really say whether votes were added or stolen in 2024. Counting votes takes time. After all, they're not being tallied by a satellite. And even though the other side won, the left isn't alone in complaining about election rigging this year. Even with Trump and Republicans making huge gains, many on the right still say the voting machines are rigged. To illustrate this, take a look at this very popular meme spreading in right-wing circles. The funky lines in Trump's hair are hinting that Democrats are trying to pull off some election shenanigans with last-minute ballot dumps. We see a similar trend in Wisconsin, where many look at a sudden spike in Democratic votes as proof. These charts have been making the rounds on X in right-wing circles, where Harris or Democrats got a sudden spike in votes, which looks very similar to something that happened in the 2020 election. Are there any other possible explanations aside from ballot dumps that could explain those spikes? Well, keep in mind that Republicans and Democrats, along with state and Milwaukee election leaders, warned well in advance that Milwaukee absentee ballots would be reported late and cause a huge influx of Democratic votes. AP News reported, those ballots are counted at a central location and reported all at once, often well after midnight on election day. Election officials for years have made clear that those ballots are reported later than usual because of the sheer number that have to be counted and the fact that state law does not allow for processing them before polls open. And given that Milwaukee is a predominantly Democratic voting bloc, even some Wisconsinites like Jim Villa, a longtime Republican who served in the Wisconsin Legislature and the Milwaukee County Executive's Office under Scott Walker, are asking for the term ballot dumps to stop being used to describe the spike in Democratic votes. But why let nuance get in the way of easy-to-understand rage-baiting narratives? Actually, that'd be a pretty great slogan for this channel. It turns out lack of nuance is exactly the problem. People on both the left and right are drawing conclusions based on snippets of information here and there to draw huge conclusions that seem logical, but don't actually match up with reality when you do what you should and take context into consideration. For example, some on the left still believe Trump intentionally staged the Butler County assassination attempt against him. Clearly, those who claim this have never fired a gun. And as far as I'm aware, they have absolutely no explanation as to why everybody in government treats the Trump assassination attempt like it was the real deal. Knowing how much people in government hate Trump, you'd think a credible voice would have called out Trump's supposed act by now. Yet no straight shooter has denied that straight shooter. As for people on the right, there are still some who believe the Biden administration is setting up the groundwork to kill US citizens to prevent Trump from coming into office, thanks to a document called Directive 5240.01. If you've watched my whole breakdown of that directive, you'd know that people were jumping to conclusions without really reading the entire thing in proper context. If you want to learn more about that, I'll leave a link below. You should check it out. As we've always said on this channel for the last 45 seconds, let nuance get in the way of easy-to-understand rage-baiting narratives. So my advice is, if you see something strange on the internet, don't have a freak out. Take the time to look into it, and make sure you have proper context backed by facts. Don't just believe your feelings and try to work backwards. That's how you wind up with wild conspiracy theories. Except space not being real. That one's totally true. And before YouTube kicks you to some random video, check out the latest episode of my show Deep Thoughts While Gaming, where I hide controversial topics in video game content. Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching America Uncovered.