Bucks County Republicans, Democrats condemn fake voter fraud video

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On Thursday, Bucks County officials quickly condemned a fake video circulating on social media that falsely depicted voter fraud related to mail ballots.

In a bipartisan statement, the Bucks County Board of Elections said they reported the video to local and national law enforcement, including the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI.

“This type of behavior is meant to sow division and distrust in our election systems, and makes a mockery of the people working incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is carried out,” the statement from Bucks Commissioners Bob Harvie, Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo read.

Republicans and Democrats released statements condemning the disinformation, although each party implied the video was created to target them.

“To us, this is disinformation, aimed at scaring voters and dissuading them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in ballot process,” the Bucks County GOP statement read. “We have seen dirty underhanded tactics this year, from the defacing of signs, letters threatening Trump supporters, and now this video trying to scare Bucks County voters.”

Bucks County Democrats also said the fake video was undermining voter confidence — but attributed it to “supporters of Donald Trump.”

State Rep. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, said in a statement that the “racist video is little more than a despicable attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to cast doubt on our vote by mail system and, ultimately, the outcome of the Presidential Election.”

“It is clear that whoever made this video and those that are now trying to push it out on the internet are afraid that once again Donald Trump will lose, and so this is also an act of desperation to try and sow doubt in what we fully expect will be the election of Kamala Harris as president of the United States,” he said. “Fortunately, we believe the public will see this for what it is, and the election process will move forward without incident.”

Dan Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, said regardless of where the video originated, both parties’ responses touch on the impacts of disinformation.

“It could be enough to turn off some voters who think, ‘Oh, my vote’s not going to be counted anyway,’” he said. “And of course, that’s the that may be the short-term effect to try to turn off those voters. But then, of course, the long-term effect of all this is the erosion of belief in elections in a democratic nation.”

Chris Borick, a professor of political science at Muhlenberg College, said it is “concerning” to see this disinformation targeting a key swing county in a crucial battleground state like Pennsylvania. The speedy response on the part of officials in combating disinformation is key, but sometimes the damage can’t be undone.

“The declines in trust are not happening or occurring randomly,” he said. “They’re occurring because of efforts like this to sow distrust and they’re cumulative. When they add up, when they become part of the discussion, when they’re spread, they start to erode confidence, and we’ve seen that in our polling for voting processes, we see it concentrated often among certain demographics, certain partisan groups, but nonetheless, are very problematic to the robustness, the health of an election system and a broader democracy.”

Jim O’Malley, Bucks County deputy communications director, said the county’s strict procedures protect against any kind of tampering with mail ballots.

“If you as a voter have returned your ballot to us, we keep it safe in a secure space where it is under 24/7 surveillance and is not opened or disturbed until Election Day,” O’Malley told WHYY News. “At that point, you know, at 7 a.m., we start opening them and processing them to be scanned and counted. But up until that point, we keep everything safe and secure and under 24/7 surveillance.”

O’Malley encouraged voters to view a recent video Bucks County’s government released, “Life of a Ballot,” that shows how the county’s mail ballots are processed and counted.