Video shows a Philadelphia poll worker committing election fraud.
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No, this isn’t video evidence of election fraud in Philadelphia
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- This video was shot in Madison, Wisconsin, and shows an election worker circling ballot ward numbers and initialing them as required as part of the ballot verification process.
A clip of an election worker flipping through ballots and marking them first aired on Fox News as part of the network’s 2022 midterm elections coverage. On social media, however, it’s being distorted.
"Nothing to see here in Philly," one Nov. 10 Instagram post said. "Just a little voter fraud."
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
A look at the full Fox News segment from which the clip originated shows the video of the election worker wasn’t shot in Philadelphia.
Footage that aired immediately before that clip showed the outside of the East Passyunk Community Center, a polling location in Philadelphia. A Philadelphia dateline was visible in the broadcast’s top left corner.
But then the footage changes to show this clip of an election worker flipping through ballots. The dateline on that image is Madison, Wisconsin.
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But the version of the video spreading on social media cuts out the Madison, Wisconsin, dateline.
City Commissioner Seth Bluestein tweeted photos of the inside of the East Passyunk Community Center on Nov. 8, saying he "personally visited the East Passyunk Community Center polling place today."
Sharing photos of the locations, he added: "The interior shot is not of a Philadelphia polling location, as you can see in these photos I just took tonight. This is another example of dangerous misinformation."
We reached out to the clerk’s office in Dane County, where Madison is the county seat, and didn’t immediately hear back.
But Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell previously told Madison news station Channel 3000 that the poll worker in the clip was marking ballots to show in which ward the ballots were cast. Poll workers are required to circle the ward number and initial it for verification, the station noted.
We rate claims that this video shows a Philadelphia poll worker committing fraud Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Instagram post, Nov. 10, 2022
Seth Bluestein tweet, Nov. 8, 2022
Channel 3000, Tweet incorrectly claims Madison poll worker was ‘rigging’ ballots, Nov. 8, 2022
The Faulkner Focus clip, Nov. 8, 2022
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No, this isn’t video evidence of election fraud in Philadelphia
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