FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show Ballots Cast For Trump Being Burned?
A video shared on Facebook allegedly shows a man lighting ballots cast for President Donald Trump on fire.
Verdict: False
The burned pieces of paper were sample ballots, not ballots cast for Trump, according to the city of Virginia Beach.
Fact Check:
The short video depicts someone off-camera throwing a plastic bag filled with alleged ballots cast for Trump on the ground. He then lights the bag on fire. âIâve got around 80,â he says while the fire burns. âYou work at the mail or polling place, you gotta do what you gotta do.â
âVideo of a man burning up Trump ballots and bragging about it,â the Facebook postâs caption states. âHe implies he works at a mail or polling place and gives impression (sic) that many others did this too, like it was their job to destroy Trump ballots.â
However, the video does not actually show a poll worker burning ballots cast for Trump. A screen grab from the video showed that the papers being burned were actually sample ballots from Virginia Beach. The city addressed the claim in an âElection Briefâ shared on its website on the evening of Nov. 3. (RELATED: Viral Video Falsely Claims Ballots Marked With Sharpie Were Invalidated In Arizona)
âA concerned citizen shared a video with us that ostensibly shows someone burning ballots,â the statement reads. âThey are NOT official ballots, they are sample ballots. See the attached freeze frame image and photo of the official ballots, which have the bar codes.â
Trumpâs son, Eric Trump, shared a tweet featuring the video on Nov. 4, per CNN. The Twitter account for Virginia Beach responded to the younger Trumpâs tweet saying, âThose were sample ballots. Addressed this yesterday.â
The account that first shared the video has since been suspended on Twitter for violating the platformâs rules, the outlet reported.
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