Claims that former President Donald Trump does not appear on the first page of the presidential candidates list on voting machines in California, with supporters having to click "more" to find his name, have gone viral on social media.
The allegation originated with an anonymous X account, but has since been shared by House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close Trump ally, who branded the situation "ridiculous."
Election integrity has been a major issue following the 2020 presidential election, which Trump continues to insist he won despite this claim being repeatedly rejected in court and by independent election experts. A recent study from the Brookings Institute think tank concluded the share of fraudulent votes cast in elections over the past 25 years was "minuscule."
On October 30, an anonymous X account with the user name 'Darth Caul' shared what they claimed was the screen from an electronic voting machine in California, which didn't list Trump in the top four options for the presidential election. Instead, the names seen were that of the Democratic nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, independent candidate and Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who partially suspended his campaign, Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, and the Green Party's Jill Stein.
The X user wrote: "If you wanted to vote [red] you had to click an extra button to even select the candidate on the Republican ticket." The post went viral on X receiving over 9,600 reposts and 6.6 million views.
The post was shared by Georgia Representative Greene, who added: "In California, Trump/Vance is not on the first page of the ballot, but RFK still is even though he dropped out months ago!!"
"CA voters have to click to move on to multiple pages to vote for Trump. This is ridiculous!!"
Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in California and 32 other states even as he suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump. He said he would withdraw his candidacy in swing and safe Republican-leaning states.
X user 'American AF,' who describes themselves as part of Trump's MAGA movement, also shared the photograph, commenting: "Donald Trump's name doesn't appear on the first screen as an option, on voting machines in California. You have to click 'more' options to be able to vote for him." This post accumulated 23,000 reposts and 12.1 million views on the platform.
However, it also received a community note from fellow X users, noting: "In California, the order of the candidates is randomized, and rotated throughout districts."
Links to other California voting slips shared on X, which had Trump listed among the top candidates, were included in the community note.
According to the website of California Secretary of State Shirly Weber, who is responsible for overseeing elections in the Golden State, the ballot order is determined by letters being selected at random.
The website states: "On the 82nd day before an election, the Secretary of State conducts a randomized drawing of letters of the alphabet pursuant to California Elections Code section 13112.
"The resulting order of letters constitutes the 'randomized alphabet' to be used for determining the order of candidates' names on the ballot."
Newsweek contacted the office of Secretary of State Shirly Weber, along with the X accounts 'Darth Carl' and 'American AF,' for comment on Friday outside of regular office hours. Contact was made via online inquiry sheet, email and X direct message respectively.
An analysis of recent polling by the election website FiveThirtyEight, published on Thursday, gave Harris a 1.2-point lead (rounded) over Trump nationwide with 47.9 percent of the vote against 46.8 percent.
However, due to the Electoral College system, a candidate can get the most votes but not win overall, as happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Overall, FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 53 percent chance of victory against 47 percent for Harris.
In better news for the Democratic candidate, a recent analysis based on artificial intelligence, conducted by Bonus Code Bets, concluded that Harris is on track for a slim victory with 276 Electoral College votes against 262 for her Republican opponent.
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