Fact check: Do social media posts show midterm ballots in the trash?
Posts on Instagram and Twitter purported to show photos of discarded midterm ballots from California and New Mexico. PolitiFact checks the claims.
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Two photos of piles of mail including ballots were posted on Instagram after the midterm election with a worrisome caption.
"ELECTION22: From L.A. County California to Chavez County New Mexico, garbage collectors report finding thousands of midterm ballots in trash at hundreds of locations," the Nov. 10 post said.
We did reverse image searches for both photos and quickly found that neither are from 2022 or Los Angeles County or Chaves County (which is spelled with an s, not a z).
"The content of the mail was mixed, but did contain several absentee ballots," the sheriff’s office said in a statement at the time.
We found no credible reports to corroborate the claim that garbage collectors have allegedly found thousands of midterm ballots in the trash.
We rate claims that these photos show trashed 2022 midterm ballots Pants on Fire!
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