This photo illustration shows a ballot for the 2024 US presidential election as seen in Los Angeles on November 4, 2024. ( AFP / Chris DELMAS)

Doctored photo misrepresents California vote totals

Published on November 12, 2024 at 22:02
3 min read
By Natalie WADE, AFP USA

After President-elect Donald Trump scored a decisive victory over Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 White House election, a social media user shared a screenshot claiming to show California counted millions more votes than the state's total population. This is false; the screenshot is manipulated to display figures far higher than the official tally or numbers used in media projections.

"Uh... California? What's going on there, boys and girls?" says a November 6, 2024 X post.

The post includes a screenshot showing Harris received more than 28 million votes, Trump 19 million, and about a million more votes that were divided among Independent, Green Party and Libertarian candidates -- totaling over 48 million votes. The user then compares this to California's estimated population of about 39 million people.

Screenshot of and X post taken November 7, 2024

Harris won all 54 electoral votes in California but was defeated by Trump, who won more than half of the 50 US states, including seven key battlegrounds.

Cartogram showing electoral college votes won by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election, by state, according to US media (AFP / Olivia BUGAULT, Samuel BARBOSA)

The post appears to play into voter fraud allegations that circulated on social media leading up to Election Day -- sowing doubt in the electoral process -- several of which AFP has debunked.

Although the latest Census data estimated California's population was just short of 39 million people in 2023 (archived here), the screenshot is fabricated and shows incorrect vote tallies.

The Decision Desk Headquarters (DDHQ), the data provider used by media organizations reports that as of November 12, with 78 percent of the state vote counted, Harris received approximately 7.7 million votes, compared to Trump's 4.9 million (archived here).

The social media post also displays erroneous figures for other candidates listed on the ballot.

The counting for California is longer than for most states because of its sheer size and number of voters, mail-in ballots, provisional votes, and same-day voter registration. As of November 12, there remained more than two million uncounted ballots -- not nearly enough to account for the totals posted on X.