PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in Bucks County say a viral video showing mail-in ballots being destroyed is fake and that it was released to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.
The video shows a man’s hands opening up ballots for former President Donald Trump and ripping them up. It was initially posted to X and particularly shared on conservative accounts. The original post, from an account called “TheWakening,” was deleted.
However, the Bucks County Board of Elections said the video was a fake and that no one did that to any real ballots. According to officials, the county did not distribute the materials shown in the video. Viewers can tell the difference, for example, by the different shade of green on the envelopes.
“One, the ballots were very glossy and they don’t look like that in real life,” explained Lauren Cristella, president and CEO of the nonpartisan watchdog group Committee of Seventy, “and two, our election officials aren’t allowed to open those envelopes or go through any of the ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.”
The board condemned the video in a bipartisan statement, saying, “This type of behavior is meant to sow division and distrust in our election systems, and makes a mockery of the people working incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is carried out.”
County Democrats and Republicans also spoke out against the video. “This obviously fraudulent and, frankly, racist video is little more than a despicable attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to cast doubt on our vote by mail system and, ultimately, the outcome of the presidential election,” said state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the county’s Democratic Party.
“To us, this is disinformation, aimed at scaring voters and dissuading them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in ballot process,” said the Bucks County Republican Committee in a statement.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and Yardley Borough Police Department have launched an investigation into the video. Officials say the FBI is also involved in trying to identify the original source of the video.