Right-wing websites and media outlets, including the Republican Party of Philadelphia and Trump campaign leader Mike Roman, are spreading disinformation about Democrats trying to “steal” the election in Pennsylvania, a contested state that is seen as crucial to the chances of President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden winning the presidency.
On Twitter, Roman and Will Chamberlain, editor-in-chief of the far-right site Human Events, posted a video on Twitter in which a Philadelphia election worker was denied access to a polling station in Philadelphia.
In his post, Chamberlain included the hashtag #StopTheSteal, a hashtag used by right-wing Twitter users to implicate a Democratic conspiracy to rig the election. His post has since been shared over 24,000 times and viewed over 2.5 million times by 20:00 ET.
However, Kevin Feeley, the spokesman for the Philadelphia City Commissioners who run the Philadelphia elections, told investigative journalism ProPublica that some election observers were wrongly prevented from entering the polling stations and were subsequently allowed into the polling station.
In another tweet, Roman accused the Democrats of illegally campaigning at a polling station, adding: “That’s why the DEMS wrongly keep the TRUMPF monitors away from the polling station. They steal it! This must stop!”
Members of our Elections Task Force have investigated this accusation. This polling station is located in an interior, and the sign in question is more than three meters away from it. This tweet is deliberately deceptive. #PhillyVotes #Election2020 https://t.co/szKgxoigVm
– Philadelphia DAO (@philadao) November 3, 2020
However, the Philadelphia DA’s office called Roman’s tweet “deliberately deceptive” and added that the incident Roman was writing about was more than ten feet from the ballot box, and that state law permits this.
Nevertheless, Roman’s tweet about the incident was shared more than 2,500 times.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
