The video showing the destruction of the Bucks County ballot is fake

A screenshot of the fake ballot from the video. Photo credit: X

A video that appears to show the destruction of a Bucks County mail-in ballot cast for Republican candidates is fake, officials say.

The video was posted by a conservative account on Thursday afternoon and ripped it apart.

The post read: “Breaking: Destruction of Trump mail-in ballots caught on camera in Bucks County, PA.” This shocking footage needs to be investigated immediately! If true, it could pose a serious threat to the integrity of the election. It’s becoming increasingly clear that this is the only way the Democrats believe they can win this election!”

The Bucks County Board of Elections investigated the posted video and determined it was fake.

“This video is fake,” it said in a statement.

County election officials reported that “the envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials owned or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections.”

A real Bucks County vote for the 2024 primary election. File photo.

A Republican elected official separately told this news organization that the ballot was obviously fraudulent because mail-in ballots were not glossy and had a different shade of green on the envelope.

Scott Pressler, a conservative activist who has helped register voters in Bucks County and throughout the county, posted on social media that the video was “false – fake.”

The video was shared by other conservative social media accounts and led to phone calls to county offices.

The same account that posted the video of the fake Bucks County mail-in ballot posted a deep fake video making false claims against Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz. The claims in the video have been disputed by several high-profile conservative commentators.

The Bucks County Board of Elections – Chair Bob Harvie, Vice Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo – issued the following bipartisan statement:

“This type of behavior is intended to sow division and distrust in our electoral systems and ridicule the people who work incredibly hard to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections.” The Electoral Commission strongly condemns this deliberate spread of dangerous disinformation. We will not allow ourselves to be distracted from the task that the voters of Bucks County have entrusted to us.”

Election officials said the video was reported to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and the FBI, as well as the Pennsylvania Department of State.

A spokesperson for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the office was aware of the video.

The prosecution made the following statement:

“The Bucks County Prosecutor’s Office and the Yardley Borough Police Department are aware of a video circulating on social media that appears to show ballots being destroyed. Our investigation has determined that this video was faked in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.

Our office is in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which will attempt to locate the source of this fake video.”

We would like to thank the public and the County Board of Elections for bringing this to our attention. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office will not tolerate voter suppression, intimidation or fraud of any kind.”

The X account that posted the video references the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, which says Democrats and some Republicans who don’t support Trump eat babies and extract a chemical compound from their bodies. The conspiracy also claims that the “Deep State” has assassinated opponents, is behind sex trafficking, has worked to hide evidence of a shadowy global “cabal” ranging from royalty to Hollywood actors, and that gaffes by Trump secret signals for supporters of the conspiracy were. Part of the conspiracy involves one or more high-ranking government officials publishing their illegal moves online. Given the outlandish nature of the conspiracy, QAnon’s predictions are almost always wrong, but part of the conspiracy is that anything that is wrong only serves to deter opponents. The QAnon movement has been linked to violence and the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Bucks County Republican Committee released the following statement:

We’ve seen the video circulating online showing someone, supposedly in Bucks County, tearing up ballots containing votes for President Donald Trump. We immediately worked with our attorneys, as well as attorneys for the Trump campaign, to investigate this. The Bucks County Board of Elections has confirmed that the actions shown in this video did not occur.

The video is fake because, for example, the color of the envelopes is the wrong shade of green, the paper is not the same quality as the Bucks County Board of Elections, the envelopes are missing a return address, and there is no employee at the Bucks County Board of Elections matching the person’s description in the video. Additionally, no absentee or mail-in ballots have been and will not be opened and counted until Election Day on November 5th.

To us, this is disinformation designed to scare voters and discourage them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting, which uses the same mail-in voting process. We’ve seen dirty, underhanded tactics this year, from defacing signs to letters threatening Trump supporters and now this video trying to scare Bucks County voters.

The Board of Elections staff assists hundreds of voters every day and works tirelessly to process all applications received. Our county party chair and staff all voted by mail because we are confident our system works and is safe in Bucks County.

We remain vigilant. We will continue to work to help voters and ensure every vote is properly counted.

Please don’t let their scaremongering work. Please continue to cast your vote and let us win!

Bucks County Democratic Committee Chairman State Senator Steve Santarsiero released the following statement:

“This blatantly fraudulent and, frankly, racist video is little more than a despicable attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to challenge our mail-in voting system and ultimately the outcome of the presidential election.” It is clear that those watching this video have made, and those who are now trying to spread it on the Internet are afraid that Donald Trump will lose again, and therefore this is also an act of desperation that tries to sow doubt about what we fully believe expected will be the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States. Fortunately, we believe the public will recognize this for what it is and that the electoral process will proceed without incident.”

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