The biggest fans of Vice President Kamala Harris are refusing to believe that she lost the 2024 election to President-elect Donald Trump.
At the core of their conspiracy lies voter turnout—which reached levels near 2020’s record high but did not exceed it.
Democrats buying into the conspiracy theory claim that there are “20 million votes missing,” which they argue is clear evidence of fraud.
“Dear POTUS, There are 20 million votes MISSING,” proclaimed one person on X. “No way there were 20 million fewer votes than 2020 with a massive 25 million surge in voter registration and record turnout. NO WAY.”
“How can we have had record turnout and twenty million fewer votes cast nationally?” echoed someone else.
“I hope in the coming days someone is able to explain how we had record turnout but 18M fewer votes than 2020. Both of those things can’t be true,” concurred the prominent pro-Democrat account Mueller, She Wrote.
Mueller, She Wrote was one of the most prominent accounts leading the charge against the veracity of the 2016 election, where Russia was accused of interfering to aid Trump.
In 2024, RussiaGate is now TurnoutGate.
In reality, voter turnout changes by the cycle and by the state. It’s true that turnout overall was high—likely the second biggest turnout of any presidential election, behind 2020 in which more than 155 million Americans cast a ballot. Of the votes so far counted this election, at least 138 million people voted.
While some places reported record levels of voter registration and turnout, such as Arizona’s Maricopa County seeing a record-high in single-day voter registrations and Oklahoma marking a record number of early in-person voters and voter registration, that trend was not reflected throughout the country.
According to a Washington Post analysis, predicted voter turnout varied widely by state with many, such as Texas and New York, seeing lower turnout rates than in 2020.
It also found 12 states exceeded their previous records of turnout—including the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all of which Trump either leads or won.
The raw number of votes received by both candidates will inevitably increase in the coming days, as states—particularly on the West Coast—continue to report votes. As of Wednesday morning, 54% are reporting in California; 73% in Oregon, 62% in Washington, and 61% in Arizona.
But that hasn’t stopped Harris’ most ardent fans from floating turnout-related conspiracies reminiscent of the false voter fraud claims pushed by some right-wingers in the wake of Trump’s 2020 loss.
“Not an expert in voting machines… BUT, Could Texas and Florida Govs have disappeared millions of Dem votes?” pondered one person.
“Him and Russia had it rigged from the start,” wrote someone else bringing the conspiracy back full circle.
“DEMAND A FREAKING RECOUNT, SOMETHING IS OFFFF” blasted someone else, calling the totals incorrect before many states had even finished counting.
Other Resistance Liberals made the hashtag #DoNotConcedeKamala trend on X, with Harris supporters asking her to deny she lost.
“Hillary made a mistake conceding, Al Gore made a mistake conceding, bowing down to the corrupt Supreme Court,” one person using the hashtag decried. “Biden should move heaven and earth to stay in office. Supreme Court gave him permission. Recount everything take our time. Ignore media.”
“Something stinks, the math doesn’t math,” concluded someone else.
The left-wing conspiracy has drawn the attention of right-wing conspiracists, who are similarly using this year’s turnout to push their old election conspiracy theory.
“The funniest thing I’m seeing is Dems saying the election was rigged because there was huge turnout last night and there are 20 million less votes for Kamala. lol,” wrote comedian Roseanne Barr. “They still think Biden got 81 million votes at 4 am. Trump is the most popular candidate of all time. He won three elections- two handedly in a row.”
“Wait, she only got 60 million votes… Weird, almost like they cheated in 2020…” floated someone else.
Dinesh D’Souza—one of the most vocal proponents of debunked claims the 2020 election was stolen from Trump—concluded: “Does anyone really believe Biden got 80 million in 2020? Where did those 20 million Democratic voters go? The truth is, they never existed.”
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
