After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, he spent four years pushing conspiracy theories about voter fraud, voting machines switching votes, fake mail-in ballots, foreign interference, and numerous other things. None of it ever checked out or succeeded in court, mainly because there was no truth to any of it.
Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, the final result of which is not in any real dispute, has led to some cognitive dissonance among conspiracy theorists and uninformed individuals in both parties.
One particular conspiracy theory has gained some purchase in the online world: Because the current vote totals Kamala Harris with around 20 million fewer votes than Biden received in 2020, something must have been rigged or untoward. Therefore, Harris should be calling for recounts or refusing to concede:
Some liberal accounts are cooking up bizarre “fraud” theories about Donald Trump’s win and demanding a recount using #DoNotConcedeKamala.
There’s zero evidence of widespread irregularities in the election and many votes are still being counted. pic.twitter.com/Z4jJgLnk14
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) November 6, 2024
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However, there’s a perfectly good explanation for the vote total discrepancy: The 81 million-vote figure for Biden in 2020 represents the final total. For Harris, the 66 million vote figure is NOT final. Not every state has finished counting its votes, as California, in particular, is known for sometimes taking weeks to do so. Once the votes are counted in total and certified, Harris will likely have millions more votes than her current amount- but if she ends up with fewer, it may be because she lost while Biden won.
Not to be outdone, that same set of facts, and the misinterpretation of it, has led to a rival, right-wing conspiracy theory: That the reason Harris had so many fewer votes than Biden is that Democrats cheated with “fake votes” in 2020:
There is not a single honest person in America, who believes Joe Biden get 81 million votes. Last night made it clear 2020 was stolen. History will acknowledge this. pic.twitter.com/L4ef2G9yA5
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) November 6, 2024
Of course, this is also not true. But it raises another question: If Democrats “cheated” in 2020, why didn’t they do it again in 2024? It’s a fair bet that this would have been alleged had Harris won, so why didn’t they do it again? Wouldn’t doing so have been easier now that a Democratic administration is in charge?
The truth is that both elections were conducted fairly, and neither outcome should be in any dispute. The difference is that in 2024, the conspiracy narrative is being pushed by randos on social media, not by elected officials, much less the candidate herself.
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
