Donie O’Sullivan, Mallory Simon, Konstantin Toropin and Annie Grayer, || CNN
Trump shared an image of an electoral map of Michigan that showed an unexplained overnight increase in the number of returned ballots in the state. According to the data in the map, 138,000 ballots had come in out of nowhere, and all of them were for Biden.
This accusation has been going viral amongst his supporters all morning. For example, one website read, “Voter Fraud in Michigan — Massive Dump of Over 200,000 Ballots for Biden All the Sudden Appear Overnight.” At least 14,000 tweets had included this same image.
It is confirmed that the image was real, but the idea that it indicated fraud was not true. Decision Desk HQ said there had been an error in the data that was sent from Michigan’s Shiawassee County. A clerk with the Shiawassee County Clerk’s Office confirmed to CNN that that a typing error had been made when votes were being entered for Biden, and that the error was corrected within 30 minutes.
This story is good coverage over the power that media has. That one false image was shared and sent to the President via Twitter and a huge part of his following reacted immediately. That one image caused mass chaos amongst the media and this goes to show the importance of having knowledge of what you say and making sure you have proof that the information you are sharing is valid.