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