some Democrats say Trump's victory was due to fraud

“The account is not good”, “Trump cheated”, “Demand a recount”. Since November 6, and the victory of the Republican candidate in the American presidential election, voices have been raised to question the results. Unlike previous elections, this time they come from the Democratic camp.

In the speech in which she admitted her defeat, Kamala Harris nevertheless admitted that even if “the election results were not what we wanted”, “we must [les] accept “. But many of its voters, surprised by the defeat of their candidate as much as by its magnitude, expressed their incomprehension and their distress. Among these, some denounce a rigged election and call for a recount of votes.

Marginal on TikTok, this questioning by Democrats of the election results is expressed above all on the social networks “Recount [les voix de l’élection de ] 2024″). It is nothing as massive and systematic as the “Stop the steal” movement of Trump and his activists in 2020, or “Protect the vote” during the 2024 campaign. Some posts nevertheless reached notable audiences, like a tweet calling for a recount seen more than 13 million times.

The myth of the 20 million missing votes

This speech with conspiratorial overtones is based on insignificant or misleading details. “There's no way those motherfuckers would have counted [les votes] so fast, because they have never counted so fast”thus enrages an Internet user on X, in reference to the time it took to find out the winner during previous elections. But these were tighter. As explained The New York Times on November 6, the lead acquired by Donald Trump in several key states was sufficient to declare him the winner even before the end of the count, Kamala Harris mathematically no longer able to join him.

On Facebook, another Internet user explains that“20 million votes are missing”proof that “something is clearly wrong”. According to a persistent rumor, Kamala Harris would have in fact received 20 million fewer votes than Joe Biden in 2020 (in other versions, the difference is 18 million), a gap considered abnormal and suspicious. The Democratic Party and its main political action committee, Priorities USA, regularly denounce “voter suppression” operations, a set of legal and illegal techniques aimed at preventing certain groups from exercising their civil rights. In Virginia, for example, 1,600 people were removed from the electoral rolls in early November by decision of the Supreme Court, against a backdrop of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over their American citizenship.

But it is highly unlikely that 20 million voters could have been deprived of their vote. In reality, these shaky calculations fail to specify that Joe Biden had collected a total of 81 million votes in 2020, which constitutes an absolute record in American history, but that the counting of Kamala Harris's votes is still in progress. Thursday, November 7 at 2 p.m., the Democratic candidate had almost 68 million votes, which is only 13 million fewer, while the counting continues in Nevada and Arizona. She has already surpassed Hillary Clinton's 65 million votes in 2016.

Real and fantasized interference

The most serious accusations relate to Russian election interference. At least three times in the past two weeks, US intelligence services have exposed viral videos promoting pro-Trump conspiracy theories. These fakes have been attributed to Storm-1516, a Kremlin-linked disinformation group that previously operated in France during the Olympics.

The Internet user behind the AlphaFox78 account, a Trumpist activist who first relayed a video of fake Haitian voters, explained to CNN that he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post it. If these manipulations are proven, they only had one effect « marginal » on the ballot, estimates political science researcher Julien Giry, these circulating mainly among Republican voters who were already committed to Donald Trump.

Some Democrats nevertheless denounce massive electoral interference, even if it means highlighting news items – a technique usually observed among Trumpist conspiracy activists. A user of “an investigation and a new vote”by sharing four video extracts evoking ballot boxes set on fire, as so many indications of electoral manipulation. However, although three electoral ballot boxes were indeed burned in the states of Oregon and Washington, these incidents remained isolated. The police do not know the motives of the individual responsible, who left messages in support of Palestine, but most of the affected voters were able to be identified and vote again.

“No evidence of any malicious activity”

Generally speaking, the scattered Democratic protests are more a matter of dismay than real doubts about the American electoral system. He was not found at fault, assure the federal authorities. “Our election infrastructure has never been more secure and the community [qui tient les bureaux de vote] never so well organized”welcomes CISA, the United States cyber defense agency, which declares that it has not seen “no evidence of any malicious activity that materially impacted the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”

In 2020, Donald Trump tried to convince the Georgia secretary of state of him “find 11,780 votes” which he lacked to win the election. He has since been indicted for “fraudulent conspiracy against the United States”. Four years later, after a campaign marked by the all-out dissemination of false information and conspiracy theories about hypothetical Democratic cheating, he won the election with a comfortable lead. Accusations of manipulation from Democrats are now the subject of mockery from Trumpist activists.