Does a video show "illegal Haitians" saying they're voting for Kamala Harris in Georgia in Fulton and Gwinnett counties with driver's licenses they got after becoming citizens with just six months in the United States? No, that's not true: Names on the licenses flashed in the video are not found in the Georgia database of registered voters, according to the Secretary of State. Independently, a Clemson University professor who studies online deception also labelled the video a fake.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X on October 31, 2024. It said:
Illegal Haitians flown into the US claim they received all necessary documents and driver's licenses within just six months of arriving in the U.S. and are able to vote!!They show several Georgia driver's licenses featuring the same photo and claim to have voted for Kamala Harris in two different counties so far: Gwinnett and Fulton.
This is insane!! Imagine how many others are doing this!!
Can someone from Gwuinnett county and Fulton county in Georgia please verify this?!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 23:01:27 2024 UTC)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (archived here) released a statement about the video late on October 31, 2024, with close-ups of the licenses and of a computer screen showing at least two of the names don't appear in the state's database. This photo shows the search for the name Jacques Bencit, shown on one of the purported licenses in the video:
(Source: Photos supplied by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 01:50:13 2024 UTC)
This set of photos shows no records found for R. Sylvan:
(Source: Photos supplied by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 01:56:12 2024 UTC)
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for Raffensperger (archived here) posted a message on his X account (archived here) echoing Raffensperger's conclusions:
This is not true. It is classic disinformation. The likeliest suspect is a Russian troll farm. It's isn't even that good of a fake....but it is fake. It is a lie. Please let anyone you know that this is a steaming pile of Russian...well you get it. pic.twitter.com/7ILZhvYFHh
-- Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) October 31, 2024
Darren Linvill (archived here), a professor with Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub (archived here), which studies and combats online deception, posted two messages on his X account (archived here) calling the claim fake:
Video currently circulating of Haitian immigrants claiming to be voting illegally in Georgia has several hallmarks of the Russian, Storm-1516 campaign. The narrative focus, style and production of the video, as well as the distribution method all line up...Without question the video is fake . . . I cannot think of a less cost effective and more risky way of getting out the vote than to fly people here from Haiti and provide them with fake documents.
-- Darren Linvill (@DarrenLinvill) October 31, 2024
The driver's licenses in the video do not match a valid Georgia driver's license, lacking the red "USA" and "GA" marks in the top right corner, according to the Georgia Department of Driver Services website (archived here). Here's what the example on the state's website looks like:
(Source: Georgia Department of Driver Services website screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 23:04:11 2024 UTC)
At the 14-second mark in the video posted on X, the person is holding what appear to be several driver's licenses (screenshot below) but they do not look like the one on the government website as shown above.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 23:05:32 2024 UTC)
Here is an up-close screenshot of the driver's licenses in the video:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 23:39:15 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories also checked for the name R Sylvan DOB 01/07/2001 using the Secretary of State My Voter Page (archived here), with the same results Raffensperger reported:
(Source: My Voter Page screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 01:24:35 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories did the same search for J Bencit DOB 09/17/1998 and similarly found no matches as this screenshot shows:
(Source: My Voter Page screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 01:22:15 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories uploaded the video to the AI detection tools at TrueMedia.org. True Media reported "some evidence of manipulation," which is not a strong signal from that website's detection tools. TrueMedia's overall rating was "Uncertain: Could Be Authentic or Manipulated" as this screenshot shows:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 23:15:23 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact checks regarding the 2024 election can be found here.
