While at the time of this publication the Associated Press vote count was in fact 16 million votes lower than the 2020 election, the explanation is trivially simple: the entirety of the votes have not yet been tabulated.
“Election denial is undemocratic, whether it comes from the left or the right,” David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Research and Innovation, wrote in X. “No, there are not 20 million votes missing. Votes are still being counted in many states, including millions in CA alone. “Number of votes in 2024 very close to that of 2020, when they are all reported”
Posts related to these conspiracy theories began gaining traction around 2:00 a.m. ET, PeakMetrics data shows, which roughly coincides with the time the election was called for Trump, but even when Americans went to bed, the number of publications did not decrease.
“As of 8 a.m. ET, the number of posts per hour had increased to 31,991,” PeakMetrics wrote in an analysis shared with WIRED. “Perhaps there was a surprising lack of a nighttime dip in posts between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET, when posts typically slow down as sleep sets in in the U.S. The steady increase in posts on the Kamala recount/missing votes narrative during the overnight hours may simply reflect the intensity of this discussion, or may indicate inauthentic or automated posting behavior.”
Unlike the 2020 election denial movement, which was inspired by Trump’s refusal to accept the results, these conspiracy theories have not received any support from the candidate. On Wednesday, Harris urged her supporters to accept the results and assured them that her team will “engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”
The phenomenon of left-wing or anti-Trump accounts posting conspiracy theories on social media platforms, known as BlueAnon, rose to prominence earlier this year following the assassination attempt on Trump in July.
“Any event that seems improbable will always invite conspiracy theories about what ‘really’ happened,” says Mike Rothschild, an author who writes about conspiracy and extremist theories. “In this case, it is a factually incorrect narrative that there are tens of millions of missing votes and that Russian bomb threats sabotaged Harris’ campaign. Neither is true: Turnout appears to have declined and many states, including California, are still in the count. And while bomb threats are never acceptable, they are not the reason Harris’ campaign lost every swing state. “Attributing Trump’s victory to conspiracy theories is not living in reality.”