False NYC voter fraud accusations originated with satire

"This guy just went on TikTok and admitted to committing multiple felonies," exclaims the speaker in a November 2, 2025 Instagram reel.

The user duets the video with a clip of another person who says: "I'm here in New York, about to illegally vote for Zohran Mamdani six times." 

The footage of the person saying they had cast multiple ballots for Mamdani spread on Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social with claims it showed evidence of voter fraud.

Image

Screenshot of an Instagram post taken November 4, 2025

Image

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken November 4, 2025

Mamdani, a young, Muslim leftist, appeared poised to win the New York City mayor's race on November 4 but his campaign has also been targeted by Islamophobic misinformation.

Since clinching the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor in June, he has attracted ire from the American right, including US President Donald Trump who endorsed Mamdani's main rival, Andrew Cuomo, the night before the election.

Many conservative accounts shared the claim about the alleged six votes cast for Mamdani, calling on the Trump administration to investigate, but the footage was originally posted as a joke.

Following the account handle seen in the video reveals the clip was first posted October 29 (archived here) on the TikTok page for the band Play in Traffic with the caption "Or seven times." The juxtaposition of six and seven appears to be a reference to the "6-7" joke popular with elementary-aged children, who will loudly repeat the numbers whenever they show up next to each other.

The humorous intention was driven home with a second video (archived here) from the same account where the speaker said: "I just helped register about six day laborers -- maybe seven of them -- to illegally vote for Zohran Mamdani."

Multiple users commented on the video understanding it was a joke, while the band responded to one credulous reaction with a laughing image and text, "when I purposefully spread misinformation over the internet."

AFP reached out to Play in Traffic via TikTok for comment and did not receive a response but the band's account published a November 5 video confirming the original clip was a "6-7" joke (archived here).

Preventing multiple votes

Jokes aside, mechanisms exist to ensure voters only cast one ballot in New York City.

At polling places, residents sign an electronic poll book of registered voters that records they have cast a ballot (archived here).

"It immediately updates the database -- the voter rolls -- that you have appeared and voted," said Susan Lerner, the executive director of election watchdog Common Cause's New York chapter (archived here), pointing out this would prevent someone from showing up to vote at the same polling place more than once.

Lerner said voters will be turned away if they try to vote at a polling place besides the one at which they are registered.

Voters who request an absentee ballot to vote by mail are added to a list that bars them from voting another time in-person, she said (archived here).

If someone who does not appear in the poll book arrives at a polling place claiming they should be registered or that they never received an absentee ballot, they can submit an affidavit ballot, which is then audited following Election Day to determine whether the voter was eligible (archived here).

Lerner said each party in New York City can send poll watchers to oversee vote counts and affidavit ballot assessments to ensure election law is followed (archived here).

The conservative Heritage Foundation tracks election fraud and has identified just two convictions for duplicate voting in New York since 1982 (archived here).

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in US politics here.