Did a Poll Worker in Pennsylvania Throw Away Trump Ballots?

The Erie County Voter Registration Office says the man behind a viral post is not registered in the state.

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A viral tweet, now deleted, and other social media posts claim to show the Instagram story of a poll worker named Sebastian Machado in Erie, Pennsylvania, who admitted to throwing away ballots cast for President Trump. The claim received wide coverage thanks to a retweet from the Trump presidential campaign.

The Dispatch Fact Check verified the authenticity of the image before Machado made his account private. However, Machado is not actually av poll worker. “Sebastian is not registered in the state of Pennsylvania … he has no connection to any of us,” a representative from the Erie County Voter Registration Office told The Dispatch Fact Check in an interview. What’s more, voters in Erie County, Pennsylvania, submit their ballots directly into a machine that counts them, meaning poll workers don’t have access that would allow them to dispose of them in the first place. 

Erie County’s Voter Registration Office has not seen any real examples of poll worker tampering thus far today. “It’s been very, very busy, but smooth sailing,” the Voter Registration Office representative said.

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 U.S. Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here for more.

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  1. moviemommy

    And here we go......
    I suspect this won’t be the only instance.

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  2. Avatar photostaff-badge-circle
    MG staff-badge Staff

    It's almost like I remember reading something from this morning about not trusting social media posts claiming election tampering...

    Ah yes, here it is, from The Morning Dispatch:

    "The main thing to watch out for on election day and in the immediate aftermath is false claims of election violations that could be designed to de-legitimize the outcome. There’s been a tiny verified volume of election fraud in the past few electoral cycles: it’s much easier to make a false claim of fraud than it is to actually commit it. In the same way, we might see foreign influence operations trying to claim that they’ve already swung the election. It’s much easier to claim that than to do it.

    The most important thing for people to do is just be wary. Don’t take lurid claims of interference or fraud at face value. Don’t share dramatic stories. It will probably take longer than usual for the results to become clear this year, because of the volume of postal voting. There will be the temptation to spend every minute looking for updates. Instead, step back. Influence operations try to make people angry or afraid, because that’s when they’re easiest to manipulate. The best response is to be wary, and not over-expose ourselves to every minute of the news cycle."

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