What was claimed
A video shows ballots for Donald Trump being burned ahead of the 2024 election count.
Our verdict
False. The video is from 2020 and an investigation concluded they were sample ballots.
AAP FACTCHECK – A video of ballots burning is being falsely used as evidence of vote tampering in the 2024 US election.
But the video dates back to the 2020 election, and an investigation concluded they were sample ballots.
Several Facebook posts have shared the footage, claiming it’s evidence of illegal destruction of Trump ballots that could affect the outcome of the 2024 election.
In the video shared in the posts, a man can be heard saying: “Donald Trump … gotta do what you gotta do,” before placing paper ballots in a plastic bag, dousing them in what appears to be lighter fluid and setting them alight.
Many posts contain the caption: “Call me crazy, but I am pretty sure it is illegal to burn a bunch of Trump ballots.”
A reverse image search of the video shows it's from four years ago and does not show real ballots being burned.
The video was first debunked in November 2020, including by PolitiFact, USA Today and FactCheck.org. It gained widespread coverage when Trump’s son Eric reposted it on social media, claiming it showed 80 ballots for Trump being burned.
A screenshot of the ballots in the video showed they were from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and had the names of local candidates in that area as well as candidates for federal office.
A City of Virginia Beach statement on November 3, 2020, said the ballots in the video were “... NOT official ballots, they are sample ballots”.
The statement included a screenshot of the ballots in the video compared to the official ballots used in the election, highlighting that the samples did not include the barcode used to designate official ballots.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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