Republican Election Official Delivers Brutal Fact Check of Elon Musk’s ‘Extremely False’ Voting Conspiracy Theory
AP Photo/John Raoux, File
Elon Musk once again took a deep dive into conspiracy-laden waters Tuesday, sharing a tweet that claimed the number of voters registering without a photo ID was “SKYROCKETING” in three swing states – a claim that was swiftly smacked down by a Republican election official as “extremely false.”
The original post was on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter by an account called “End Wokeness,” and claimed, “The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania.” The tweet also claimed that the Help America Vote Verification process, which governs how local motor vehicle registration agencies can access the federal Social Security Administration databases to verify voter registration information, “allows voters to register” with just 4 digits of a Social Security Number.
Musk quote tweeted the post with the caption, “Extremely concerning,” and added a reply with the same comment as well.
The tweet soon drew a list of “Community Notes,” although none of them have yet been approved to be shown publicly. Awhile back, I was approved as a Community Notes contributor so I can see them. A sampling of comments and links written by other contributors (I have not personally contributed any notes to this tweet):
The SSA knows who are immigrants when they register for a number.
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10096.pdfHAVA only verifies the name, date of birth and deceased status. It is not solely used to determine voter registration eligibility.
https://www.ssa.gov/open/havv/#havaThis post conflates the HAVV check with Registration. HAVV tells the state if the registrant is alive or dead (or duplicate). Texas, for example, requires photo ID in order to register to vote. This post is misleading.
https://www.votetexas.gov/mobile/id-faqs.htm?ipid=promo-link-block2It is not possible for illegal aliens to obtain Social Security numbers. Only US citizens or documented legal workers or students can obtain Social Security numbers.
https://www.ssa.gov/number-card/request-number-first-time
The link provided does not support the claim made.
https://www.ssa.gov/open/havv/havv-weekly-2024-01-13.html
Presumably the “Chief Twit” himself, as the owner of the company, has at least the same level of access to these non-public Community Notes as your friendly neighborhood Mediaite contributing editor, but even if not, Musk’s tweet was soon flooded with replies scoffing at End Wokeness’ claims.
One particularly sharp retort came from a Republican election official in Arizona, one of the states mentioned in the original tweet.
In reply to Musk’s tweet that this was “Extremely concerning,” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer relied that it was “Also extremely false,” something that required only “2 minutes of research.”
“We haven’t even had that many new registrants TOTAL in 2024 in Arizona,” Richer wrote in a followup tweet.
Other conservative commentators weighed in, with Ryan Girdusky bluntly calling the End Wokeness tweet “fake news,” and Republican consultant John Eakin pointing out a similar discrepancy in the Texas numbers, with only about “315K new registrations in *all of 2024* in Texas.”
Phoenix, Arizona ABC15 reporter Garrett Archer tweeted that he “debunked this garbage in 5 minutes,” and called Musk’s quote tweet itself “extremely concerning.”
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