On the day following Donald Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States, conflicting narratives emerged on social media, suggesting potential election fraud. One narrative revived Trump’s unsubstantiated claims from 2020 that he was cheated out of winning the election, while another questioned the disparity in votes received by Vice President Kamala Harris compared to President Joe Biden in their respective elections.
Central to these stories was the assertion of a 20 million vote gap between Harris’s total in 2024 and Biden’s in 2020.
The first claim suggests that Biden’s significant 2020 vote total illustrates either Trump’s illicit means to claim a second term or widespread electoral fraud from the previous election.
However, these allegations lack any factual basis. As the vote from the recent presidential election is still being processed, comparisons to past elections are premature and misleading. Election officials overseeing the vote have indicated that there are no major issues from this year’s election, and the extensive allegations of systemic fraud during the 2020 election have been thoroughly discredited multiple times.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly reaffirmed the integrity of the electoral process, stating that “our election infrastructure has never been more secure” and that there is “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
Moreover, numerous officials from Pennsylvania, including Governor Josh Shapiro, echoed these sentiments and reported no indications of election fraud after Trump suggested in a post that there was “massive CHEATING in Philadelphia.”
Despite the assurances from officials, erroneous claims proliferated online, with posts like “20 MILLION VOTES WERENT COUNTED,” stating that Trump must have cheated. Another post shared a bar graph of election results from 2012 to 2024 and claimed that if the data were accurate, it would imply a stolen 2020 election, alleging the disappearance of 20 million votes. Notably, both Democratic candidates in previous elections earned around 66 million votes, which is only slightly less than Harris’s current total.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Harris had amassed around 67 million votes, while Biden secured roughly 81 million in 2020—a gap of about 14 million, although this number may change as more votes are counted. Interestingly, Trump is currently trailing his 2020 vote tally by approximately 2 million, with this difference also subject to change as votes continue to be processed.
There has consistently been a lack of evidence supporting Trump’s claims of winning the 2020 election. Biden captured the Electoral College with 306 votes compared to Trump’s 232, and he obtained over 7 million more votes in the popular tally. Many swing states conducted recounts or significant reviews, all confirming Biden’s victory. A detailed investigation in 2021 revealed fewer than 475 verified instances of voter fraud across six contested states—far from enough to impact the election results profoundly.
Despite various investigations verifying the election outcome, numerous legal challenges attempting to contest the results were dismissed by numerous state and federal courts, including those presided over by judges appointed by Trump himself.
The current allegations surrounding fraud in the 2024 election resemble many unfounded assertions that circulated during the previous election cycle.
In a gesture of sportsmanship, Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to congratulate him and concede the race, stating, “We must respect the results of this election.”