Trump's 'massive cheating' allegation rejected by U.S. election officials, citing lack of evidence

U.S. election officials have been addressing circulating online claims that question the integrity of the vote, including an allegation from Donald Trump about "massive cheating."

They have dismissed certain allegations of voting misconduct while also clarifying some genuine issues that have been misconstrued.

BBC Verify has been monitoring and investigating the most widely shared claims.

Trump posted on his platform, Truth Social, stating that "law enforcement coming" to Philadelphia was due to "massive cheating” there.

He did not provide any specific details or evidence to back up his claim.

The Philadelphia Police Department informed BBC Verify that they had no knowledge of what Trump was referencing.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, posted on X, saying: “There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation.”

Seth Bluestein, the Republican City Commissioner in Philadelphia, also posted on X, saying: “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”

An image circulating on social media showed someone holding a mail-in ballot allegedly marked next to Kamala Harris's name.

The poster on X claimed that voting for any other candidate would make the ballot invalid.

One post, viewed over 3 million times, claimed the picture was evidence of “weird ballot shenanigans happening.”

BBC Verify reached out to the Kentucky Board of Elections, which refuted the claim.

The board stated it had mailed 130,000 ballots and had not received any complaints about mail-in ballots with pre-printed marks next to candidate names.

“As no one has presented a pre-marked ballot to election administrators or law enforcement, the claim that at least one ballot may have had a pre-printed mark in Kentucky currently only exists in the vacuum of social media,” it said.

The board added that in Kentucky, if a mail-in ballot had more than one candidate marked, it would still be counted as long as the voter circled their chosen candidate.