Fact: Many checks exist before, during, and after voting takes place to ensure that all votes are included in the total and counted accurately.
There are multiple systems in place to ensure all ballots are counted accurately. While procedures vary by state, the most common pre-election safeguards include certifying all voting machines to federal and state security standards and conducting thorough testing.
Additionally, almost all — 98 percent — of votes cast in the 2024 election had a paper record. Election officials can use these paper records to verify the accuracy of voting machines. Once polls close, election offices conduct several security checks to ensure they have accurate results before certifying vote totals, such as having poll workers review and compare the number of voters checked in, the total number of votes cast, the number of paper ballots at the opening of the polls, and the number of paper ballots remaining to confirm these numbers agree.
Finally, after the votes have been counted, nearly all states conduct routine postelection audits in which election officials automatically check a sample of ballots — regardless of whether problems are suspected — to ensure they match machine counts.
Rumor: The 2024 election results cannot be trusted.
Conspiracy theories that target the integrity of U.S. elections and undermine faith in democracy have proliferated since the 2020 presidential election. The federal government agency that works to protect our critical infrastructure confirmed that there is no evidence of any “malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
