Map in post does not accurately reflect 2020 California election results | Fact check

Isabella Fertel, USA TODAY
·4 min read
16
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The claim: Map shows 2020 election results in California

A June 2 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) features a screenshot of a tweet showing a map of California's counties, almost all of which are colored red.

“California is RED,” reads the text in the post. “It is just because of the MASSIVE election fraud that stupid, brainwashed people believe Calif. is blue. Joe Biden won only in the SFO Bay area. In all the rest of California - including Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County - Trump won BIG in California!"

The tweet was retweeted more than 2,000 times. It was also shared more than 20 times on Facebook, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.

Other versions of the claim were shared on Twitter and Facebook, including a tweet from former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

The map of California in the post does not accurately reflect the state's certified results from the 2020 presidential election. President Joe Biden won the majority of votes at the county and state levels in 2020. The map in the post appears to match the results of the 1984 presidential election.

Map shows presidential election results from 1984, not 2020

All but five of the counties on the map are red, which would appear to indicate that former President Donald Trump, a Republican, won the majority of the votes in those counties in the 2020 election.

But the map does not accurately reflect the certified results of the 2020 election in the state, said Joe Kocurek, a spokesperson for the California secretary of state.

Official vote tallies show Biden, a Democrat, received more votes than Trump in 35 of California’s 58 counties, winning more than 60% of total votes across the state.

The map appears to reflect the results of the 1984 presidential election, in which incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan beat former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale in a landslide victory.

That year, Reagan got the majority of votes in all but five California counties, according to certified election results provided by Kocurek.

Fact check: What's true about the 2020 election, vote counting, Electoral College

The post also erroneously claims Trump received the majority of votes in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties.

Biden won more than 70% of the votes in Los Angeles County, receiving more than 3 million votes, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar. He also won more than 60% of the votes in San Diego County, receiving more than 900,000 votes, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.

In Orange County, Biden’s lead was less pronounced. However, he still won more than 50% of the votes in the county, receiving more than 800,000 votes, according to the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Mike Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, told USA TODAY in an email that “this type of mis- and disinformation – broad, unfounded, unsubstantiated claims – undermines the integrity of the election process and discourages voter participation.”

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the post for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Reuters also debunked this claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, map does not show 2020 election results in California | Fact check