On election night, there’s going to be uncertainty & anxiety (about the results). We are really vulnerable during those times to misinformation and disinformation. Don’t fall for narratives that seek to equate uncertainty w/ illegitimacy and undermine our trust in the results.

As results are being tallied, there will be efforts to delegitimize shifts in voting share. These are expected, as people from different parties used early voting & vote-by-mail at different rates. Ill-intentioned actors will try to equate those shifts with fraud. Don’t let them.

There will likely be premature projections, either accidentally or intentionally spread to give a sense that one candidate has won, to support later claims of “cheating” when the real results come in. Don’t amplify premature projections. Remember that changing results =/= fraud.

The people most susceptible to these narratives and this manipulation don’t follow my Twitter feed. If you have a good relationship to someone who may be vulnerable, please try to explain to them that uncertainty and changing counts don’t mean that the election is “rigged”.

The best way to counter these election fraud narratives is likely going to be through trusted channels: personal relationships, local media outlets.

A message that might land: Delegitimizing election results (& spreading other kinds of disinfo) may help a candidate in the short term, but in the long term it undermines our faith in elections, democracy, and each other. “Winning” by attacking elections means losing in the end.