Edited clip falsely shared as voter fraud in Taiwan elections

"They are shouting number 1, but writing down votes for number 2? Isn't this too ridiculous and dirty, we demand an audit," reads a TikTok post shared on January 13, 2024, written in traditional Chinese characters.

The accompanying video shows election officials counting votes at a polling station. A voice is heard shouting "number one, Ko Wen-je", while a man writing down the number of votes appears to add it to the column for candidate "number two". 

Ko, the presidential candidate from the opposition Taiwan People's Party, ran under the ballot number one, while the ruling-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te ran under the number two (archived link).

In Taiwan, polling staff call out the ballot number of a candidate voted for while holding up the corresponding ballot paper so it is visible to election observers.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken January 14, 2024

The video circulated after 14 million voters cast their ballots in Taiwan's closely-watched elections, defying Beijing's warnings and choosing the pro-sovereign Lai as president, securing an unprecedented third consecutive term for the DPP.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced force to bring it under its control, responded to Lai's victory saying it would not change the "inevitable trend of China's reunification".

Taiwan's Central Election Commission (CEC) put the final tally for Lai at 40.1 percent of the votes, ahead of the main opposition Kuomintang's (KMT) 33.5 percent. The TPP's Ko -- running on an anti-establishment platform -- took home 26.5 percent.

But allegations of fraud surfaced online after results were announced, prompting the CEC to hold a press conference on January 15, 2024, where its chairman Lee Chin-yung rebuffed the claims and stressed the elections were transparent and fair (archived link). 

He added he was willing to step down if courts ruled there were cases of election fraud. 

The vote-counting video garnered more than 12,000 shares and more than 690,000 views in total after it spread across TikTok here, here, here and here, Facebook here and here, as well as on Taiwanese forum Dcard.

However, the video has been edited and the local election commission told AFP no such incident took place.

'No such incident'

At the video's seven-second mark, text on the board can be seen indicating it was filmed at a polling station numbered 1340, which is located in the southern city of Tainan.

Responding to allegations that the footage showed an official counting a ballot for candidate number two despite a vote being called out for candidate number one, the Tainan City Election Commission told AFP on January 14, 2024 that "no such incident occurred".

It added: "We suspect the video has been edited and is being falsely presented in clips." 

AFP inspected the video and found it had been visibly cut. The first two seconds show a vote counter holding two ballots. However, from the three-second mark, he is suddenly seen holding only one ballot.

Below are screenshots from the two-second mark of the video, showing the man holding two ballots (left), and from the three-second mark, where he is holding one (right): 

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Screenshots from the two-second mark of the video, showing the man holding two ballots (left), and from the three-second mark, where he is holding one (right)

The CEC also addressed allegations that the video showed vote-rigging in its January 15 press conference. 

It acknowledged that members of the public who were present to witness vote counting -- which is permitted in Taiwan -- had told polling station staff that additional votes were counted for candidates one and three and the mistake was immediately rectified. 

This incident is not seen in the edited clip.

"The vote count was then audited to ensure the final tally is accurate, and the inspectors found no errors in their final checks," the CEC said.

An earlier statement from the commission the day after the election also rejected the possibility of "so-called voting fraud", noting that auditors were assigned by each of the political parties and members of the public were permitted to videotape the entire vote-counting process alongside inspectors who were monitoring proceedings (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to Taiwan's elections here, here, and here.