A post shared on Facebook claims new federal elections with “no cheating allowed” will be held in October.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence new elections for the president, House and Senate will be held in October. The Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Fact Check: 

Social media has been replete with misinformation surrounding the 2020 election since it took place in November. Check Your Fact has debunked several of these false claims.

A recent Facebook post claims, “We will have new elections in the US in October, no cheating allowed this time!” In the comment section, the Facebook user also states the elections will be for the House of Representatives, Senate and White House.

The Facebook post attributes the information to “Utsava,” which appears to be the name of an account on the social media website Telegram. Utsava on July 25 shared a post on Telegram claiming President Joe Biden will be removed from office and that “It is said that we will have new elections in October.” Both the Facebook post and Telegram post seem to reference the baseless conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be returning to the Oval Office this fall.

There is, however, no evidence there will be new federal elections in October to replace those that took place in November of last year. Elections for the House and Senate are held every two years, and the presidential election is held every four, according to the White House website. The midterms are slated to take place in November 2022, and the next presidential election will be held in 2024.

An election for a House or Senate seat can be held outside the prescribed timetable if a special election is called to fill a seat vacated before the term ends, according to Article 1 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Several special elections for the House are scheduled to be held at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. Two Ohio representatives will be elected in November, the Washington Post reported, and one representative will be elected for Florida in January 2022, according to the Florida Department of State website.

There is no special election for the office of president. If the president is unable to complete his or her term, the vice president would take over as president, as outlined by the 25th Amendment of the Constitution. (Related: No, Donald Trump Did Not Win Every State Except New York In The 2020 Election)

In November 2020, the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Elections Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council issued a joint statement saying, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” In December 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr also stated that the Justice Department hadn’t found any evidence of widespread voter fraud, according to the Associated Press.