A conspiracy theory about US "bullet ballots" - How it's hard to evaluate stuff you see online

hobbes64
Thu, 21 Nov 2024 17:08:36 +0000

I think I won't post the link here to one of the posts about this because I think it's an unproven conspiracy theory and it isn't true.
But there is a particular story going around online that one or more security experts is claiming that the latest presidential election was stolen. The "proof" is of this type:

I'm a security expert

There is some stuff in the election results that is statistically impossible, especially in swing states

There is a specific type of ballot where the voter has only voted for one candidate or issue

Here are the numbers compared to the normal numbers

Voting machines were compromised, and here's how

For each of those bullet points (and a few others I didn't mention), I have to go and research that data in order to determine if it is accurate.

I could google the expert and check their reputation

I could research how common it is to have certain types of ballot completions

I may be able to get detailed information about specific counties and their historic voting patterns

I could do a lot of research on voting machine integrity

The research on each of those bullets could be compromised by other misinformation, astroturfing, bad AI summaries, etc.

Or I could just send the link to everyone I know and hope that someone else does this. Or just send it because I don't like the election result and I wish this story was true.

It's easy to see why CNN reported that 70% of Republicans thought the 2020 election was stolen, especially since conspiracy theories were repeated to them on all their main news sources and confirmed their biases.

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~society/1k8m/a_conspiracy_theory_about_us_bullet_ballots_how_its_hard_to_evaluate_stuff_you_see_online

Votes: 7

Comments: 4