DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A video is being shared on social media claiming that the FBI has busted a mail-in-ballot rigging ahead of the Nov 5 elections in the US Presidential election.
4/13
“Three groups were arrested for rigging early voting with mail-in ballots. Don’t expect elections to be transparent and honest. Many such groups are acting on behalf of Democrats.” pic.twitter.com/Zhe34wjxil
— bot blocker | блокировщик ботов (@antibot4navalny) November 2, 2024
The post shared on X said: “Three affiliated groups were arrested for rigging early voting with mail-in ballots. Don’t expect elections to be transparent and honest. Many such groups are acting on behalf of Democrats.” The 39-second video, which includes a seal in the upper right corner that says “Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation,” begins with a photo of the back of a purported FBI agent standing over a vehicle.
The video opens with the narrator saying, “Three linked groups have been apprehended for rigging early voting by mail in ballot. List of names of recently deceased U.S. citizens and/or Americans aged 90 and over were used for electoral falsification.”
The narrator then suggests investigative journalist Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, commented on the FBI operation saying, “We have seen this before in 2020. The FBI did a great job but that does not mean the election results will be transparent and honest. We don’t know how many such groups, acting on behalf of the Democrats, there are still in the United States.”
FACT-CHECK
First of all, Higgins denied the connection and posted on X: “This is part of the Russian disinformation campaign that’s published dozens, if not hundreds of videos making various false claims, along with fake ‘verified’ QR codes. All the views, (retweets), and likes you see on this post are inauthentic, all from for-hire bot networks the people running the campaign regularly use.” Hence, the claim that Higgins was seconding the allegation is false.
Secondly, the FBI itself issued a statement on November 4, 2024 in which it clarified: “The FBI is aware of two videos falsely claiming to be from the FBI relating to election security, one stating the FBI has apprehended three linked groups committing ballot fraud and a second relating to the Second Gentleman. These videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI and the content they depict is false.”
Further scrutiny of the claim shows that the video did not give any details of where and how many rigged ballots were cast, making it a passing claim on election falsehoods, which have been debunked already here and here.
Hence, the claim that FBI busted three groups for rigging in elections is false.
Claim: FBI has busted a mail-in-ballot rigging ahead of the Nov 5 vote in the US Presidential election.
Conclusion: Misrepresentation. FBI denied stating that these videos are not authentic, are “not from the FBI and the content they depict is false.”
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
