Old image shows Connecticut ballots, not proof of fraud | Fact check

A Nov. 5 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows an image of a truck with postal bins full of white envelopes.
“For my next trick, I’m going to make all of these Donald Trump and Mark Robinson ballots disappear,” states text in the image, which is a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter. Mark Robinson was North Carolina’s Republican nominee for governor.
The caption in the Facebook post reads, “Don’t think there’s election fraud or bad actors?”
The X post was reposted hundreds of times in a day. The same image was used in claims about other swing states on X.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page
The image isn’t proof of fraud. It predates the 2024 election and shows ballots in Connecticut in 2020.
A photographer from The Record-Journal of Meriden, Connecticut, took the photo in October 2020, and The Associated Press distributed it.
Its caption states that it shows Barbara Thompson, the town clerk of Wallingford, bringing nearly 7,000 absentee ballots from the town hall to the post office. While the image circulating in 2024 was cropped to remove Thompson, other elements – including the angle of the truck, the orientation of the green cards in the postal bins and the brick structure in the background – are identical.
Claims of widespread voter fraud have been described by experts as deeply exaggerated.
Fact check: Video of man planning to vote twice for Harris is Russian disinformation
USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that a social media video is related to election machine failures in Pennsylvania, that the placement of Trump’s name on the second page of a California ballot is evidence of fraud and that a video shows a “ballot mule” in Nebraska.
One of the Facebook users who shared the post told USA TODAY he later learned the image was a hoax. USA TODAY did not immediately receive responses from other Facebook users. The X users could not be reached for comment.
PolitiFact debunked a version of the claim.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.