Does a photo of a ballot prove that a Canadian citizen was able to cast a vote for Donald Trump because there is no voter ID law in the United States? No, that's not true: The absentee ballot in the photo showing a vote for Trump was copied from a Florida voter's social media post. The post from a person pretending to be a Canadian who voted for Trump appears to be a play for engagement from an account promoting a cryptocurrency trading newsletter.
The image of a marked ballot appeared in a post (archived here) on X by @wizardofsoho on October 28, 2024. It was captioned:
I am Canadian but USA doesn't require voter Id so figured I would drive across the border and vote
Kind regards
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Nov 01 15:20:49 2024 UTC)
This post is part of a trend where people pair pictures of other countries' passports with ballots marked with votes for Trump. Thirty-five states do require some form of ID to vote, and the United States Code says a person must be a U.S. citizen to be eligible to vote for president. Violating this law could result in a fine or imprisonment.
This trend is a reaction to concerns that a lack of voter ID laws in some states could result in noncitizens voting in the 2024 presidential election. Regardless of what a state's voter ID law is, noncitizens may not vote for a candidate in a U.S presidential election. With some conditions, the United States Code (USC 611: Voting by aliens) stipulates:
(a) It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner ...
(b) Any person who violates this section shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
The post by @wizardofsoho is fake. Although their citizenship has not been verified, the image of the ballot in the post was taken from another person. On October 13, 2024, Ashley Muñoz posted the ballot photo on X. The original photo (pictured below) includes a manicured finger on the left edge of the frame. In the post by @wizardofsoho, that finger has been cropped out of the image.
I'm voting for the candidate who chooses Americans over illegals.
This is what her October 13, 2024, post looked like:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Nov 01 15:49:56 2024 UTC)
In another comment below her post, she explained why she was using a mail-in ballot:
We are a military family who votes in Florida but is stationed in North Carolina. As much as we'd love to vote in person, our service doesn't make it feasible. Thank you.
The post by @wizardofsoho has been flagged by X with a "Visibility Limited" notice linking to the platform's Civic Integrity Policy. That policy reads in part:
August 2023
You may not use X's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes, such as posting or sharing content that may suppress participation, mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process, or lead to offline violence during an election. Any attempt to undermine the integrity of civic participation undermines our core tenets of freedom of expression and as a result, we will apply labels to violative posts informing users that the content is misleading.
Another post (archived here) by @wizardofsoho -- this time, on October 30, 2024 -- used a stock image of an unmarked ballot (pictured below). The post had this caption:
Just landed in California.
i've voted for trump 78 times at diff places
no id at all who cares 🤣this is wild
(I am Canadian)
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Nov 01 16:04:00 2024 UTC)
An October 29, 2024, post on X (archived here) by @NinjaEsq featured a collection of other users' posts repeating this theme (pictured below). Lead Stories used the text from one of the screenshots -- from @GoldenAgeHerald's post (archived here), to search on X (archived here). Although the @GoldenAgeHerald account and post no longer exist, many replies used the same wording ("Democrats had it coming for not enforcing voter ID laws"), along with copycat posts of pictures of U.S. ballots and other countries' passports.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Nov 01 16:04:00 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims associated with the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.
