Fact check: Herschel Walker's changing vote count was due to human error, not election fraud

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Herschel Walker's fluctuating vote count on Fox News was proof of election fraud

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia's Senate run-off on Dec. 6. The win gave the Democratic party a critical extra seat in the Senate.

As has become the habit online, however, social media users are attempting to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the recent election.

A TikTok video shared on Instagram Dec. 7 features a Fox News broadcast from the night of the election. It shows Walker's vote total momentarily increase from 49.7% to 49.8%, before returning to 49.7%.

"Hershel (sic) Walker drops from 1,417,926 to 1,407,578 on live T.V. at the same time Warnock increases," reads text overlaid on the video.

"They did it again," reads the Instagram post's caption. "Does anyone really believe we have election integrity?"

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The original TikTok garnered more than 30,000 likes in five days, while the Instagram post garnered more than 100 likes in four days. Similar posts implying the video shows election fraud have been shared on Instagram.

But the video is not proof of election fraud. The temporary drop in vote totals was caused by human error, according to an Associated Press spokesperson. It was corrected in less than a minute.

USA TODAY was unable to contact the TikTok user but reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment.

Changing vote totals were caused by human error

Lauren Easton, an AP spokesperson, told USA TODAY via email that the mistake was not an indication of fraud.

"Human error caused us to briefly provide incorrect, overstated numbers for less than a minute on Tuesday night," Easton said. "As soon as we saw the mistake, we quickly returned to providing the numbers reported by the state."

Fact check: Image shows network error reporting Pennsylvania vote totals, not election fraud

Georgia's Secretary of State published the run-off results on its website after all the votes had been counted. Warnock beat Walker by more than 90,000 votes.

USA TODAY previously debunked implications that a Pennsylvania election graphic with conflicting data was proof of election fraud. The network involved, RSBN, similarly said that the mistake was brief and due to human error.

This claim was also debunked by PolitiFact and AFP.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Walker's fluctuating vote count on Fox News was proof of election fraud. The temporary drop in vote totals was caused by human error and was quickly corrected, according to an Associated Press spokesperson

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Georgia runoff vote count fluctuated due to human error