Authorities open Borlänge fraud probe
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Swedish authorities opened a preliminary investigation into suspected election fraud in Borlänge, Dalarna, and said it was unrelated to the earlier Taalainmaa case, while appeals surged.
Here's a good test case for our framework, demonstrating how a real incident can be turned into a false "rigged election" rumor or narrative. Here the DOJ highlights a case where a postal worker discarded mail that included ballots, and uses that to suggest voter fraud and untrustworthy elections.
Here’s DOJ, today, trying to make a mail carrier’s throwing away away mail = all voting by mail is bad
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
September 23, 2026 at 3:33 AM
by Kate Starbird Reposted by Daxton R. Stewart
Here's a good test case for our framework, demonstrating how a real incident can be turned into a false "rigged election" rumor or narrative. Here the DOJ highlights a case where a postal worker discarded mail that included ballots, and uses that to suggest voter fraud and untrustworthy elections.
Here’s DOJ, today, trying to make a mail carrier’s throwing away away mail = all voting by mail is bad
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
www.sltrib.com/news/politic...
A Utah postal worker allegedly threw ballots in a church dumpster. DOJ says it justifies a crackdown on mail voting.
At a Washington news conference, Justice Department officials used an indictment against a Utah postal worker who allegedly threw ballots away to justify attempts to crack down on mail voting.
www.sltrib.com
September 23, 2026 at 3:29 AM
Here's a good test case for our framework, demonstrating how a real incident can be turned into a false "rigged election" rumor or narrative. Here the DOJ highlights a case where a postal worker discarded mail that included ballots, and uses that to suggest voter fraud and untrustworthy elections.
That’s our biggest challenge this cycle: how do we quickly counter false rumors of election fraud (and help others see through those) but also leave room for some rumors of election interference to be true (and expose the strategy behind that interference).
September 23, 2026 at 1:43 AM
That’s our biggest challenge this cycle: how do we quickly counter false rumors of election fraud (and help others see through those) but also leave room for some rumors of election interference to be true (and expose the strategy behind that interference).
by Kate Starbird Reposted by Ryan Calo, Dorothy Bishop
Here's a post from our 2024 operations documenting an earlier version of this framework. We added the "no evidence" category during post-hoc analysis, because so many 2024 rumors were broad, un-evidenced claims about the 2020 election being "rigged". www.cip.uw.edu/2024/09/09/2...
What to expect when we’re electing: The 5 moves of misleading election rumors
Across the hundreds of rumors we have studied, we’ve found that there are five primary ways in which rumors about election processes and results mislead
www.cip.uw.edu
September 22, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Here's a post from our 2024 operations documenting an earlier version of this framework. We added the "no evidence" category during post-hoc analysis, because so many 2024 rumors were broad, un-evidenced claims about the 2020 election being "rigged". www.cip.uw.edu/2024/09/09/2...
The 6th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue w/ voting (e.g. malfunctioning machines, a design issue with a ballot, stolen ballots) but either falsely attributes intent for an accidental issue, places blame on an innocent party, or falsely suggests election fraud as the motivation
September 22, 2026 at 10:53 PM
The 6th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue w/ voting (e.g. malfunctioning machines, a design issue with a ballot, stolen ballots) but either falsely attributes intent for an accidental issue, places blame on an innocent party, or falsely suggests election fraud as the motivation
The 5th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue w/ voting (e.g. malfunctioning machines, errant registrations, mail-in ballots lost or found) but obscures or intentionally ignores the multiple layers of security and available remedies that would address this problem.
September 22, 2026 at 10:51 PM
The 5th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue w/ voting (e.g. malfunctioning machines, errant registrations, mail-in ballots lost or found) but obscures or intentionally ignores the multiple layers of security and available remedies that would address this problem.
The 4th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue with voting (e.g. mail-in ballots lost or stolen, administrative errors, an infrastructure problem at a polling site) but falsely insinuates that this (relatively minor) issue would impact election results.
September 22, 2026 at 10:48 PM
The 4th type of "rigged election" rumor centers on a real issue with voting (e.g. mail-in ballots lost or stolen, administrative errors, an infrastructure problem at a polling site) but falsely insinuates that this (relatively minor) issue would impact election results.
The final 3 types of "rigged election" rumors are based on REAL evidence (often re: real voting issues) that is wrapped into FALSE narratives using common distortions around impact, remedies & intent. These can be the hardest to address, especially in their early stages, but this framework can help.
September 22, 2026 at 10:43 PM
The final 3 types of "rigged election" rumors are based on REAL evidence (often re: real voting issues) that is wrapped into FALSE narratives using common distortions around impact, remedies & intent. These can be the hardest to address, especially in their early stages, but this framework can help.
The 3rd type of "rigged election" rumor is based upon real evidence (e.g. voting materials in a mailbox, a video of election workers, statistical data) that has been misinterpreted or intentionally mischaracterized to create a false impression. A large % of election rumors fall into this type.
September 22, 2026 at 10:37 PM
The 3rd type of "rigged election" rumor is based upon real evidence (e.g. voting materials in a mailbox, a video of election workers, statistical data) that has been misinterpreted or intentionally mischaracterized to create a false impression. A large % of election rumors fall into this type.
This is good to get out, but (a) 'no evidence' is false--there's a sea of evidence that the election is not rigged and (b) good to remember that this rigged election lie has been a feature of elections for decades. In grad school (90s) it was Dems buying votes with cartons of cigarettes
Rumors about “rigged elections" are now a fixture of U.S. elections, leading to diminished trust in election results & democracy (broadly). These rumors can sometimes be hard to debunk, esp. in their early stages. Our UW team has identified the 6 common ways that election integrity rumors mislead:
September 22, 2026 at 10:28 PM
This is good to get out, but (a) 'no evidence' is false--there's a sea of evidence that the election is not rigged and (b) good to remember that this rigged election lie has been a feature of elections for decades. In grad school (90s) it was Dems buying votes with cartons of cigarettes
by Kate Starbird Reposted by David C. Kimball, Clayton Littlejohn
Rumors about “rigged elections" are now a fixture of U.S. elections, leading to diminished trust in election results & democracy (broadly). These rumors can sometimes be hard to debunk, esp. in their early stages. Our UW team has identified the 6 common ways that election integrity rumors mislead:
September 22, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Rumors about “rigged elections" are now a fixture of U.S. elections, leading to diminished trust in election results & democracy (broadly). These rumors can sometimes be hard to debunk, esp. in their early stages. Our UW team has identified the 6 common ways that election integrity rumors mislead: