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But first...
With the news dominated by the US presidential election, we’ve been looking at a few claims circulating on social media.
One has stood out, with social media users claiming that CNN has broadcast a graphic showing Kamala Harris ahead of rival Donald Trump in the state of Texas despite polls still being open.
CNN has said the image is “completely fabricated and manipulated” and was never broadcast.
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Some states, including Texas, do allow people to vote ahead of election day, either in person or by postal vote. To speed up the process of declaring the results on the night some states do count these votes early.
Declaring these results before polls close is illegal however, so it is highly unlikely that these numbers would be known to anyone but a few politically neutral election officials, let alone CNN.
Even if they were, such information would probably show different results to the final outcome, as a large number of voters still choose to cast their ballot on polling day (5 November).
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On election night expect early and postal vote results to be among the first to be declared, having already been counted. The final results are then ‘called’ in the early morning (UK time) as in-person votes are added to get the final total.
This means a candidate could very easily be ahead early in the count and end up losing a state as further counting takes place.
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Best wishes,
Craig, Digital Campaigns Manager—Full Fact
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P.S. - With misinformation circulating on social media during the US presidential election, now is the time to support Full Fact by signing up for a monthly donation. You can’t put a price on good information.
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In July, following an assassination attempt, some social media users shared images of secret service agents with broad smiles surrounding Mr Trump in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with the implication that this showed the incident had been staged.
We found that the photographs had been digitally altered to change the expressions of the people featured from the two originals taken by an Associated Press photographer.
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In August we looked at a likely AI-generated deepfake that social media users were claiming showed evidence that Kamala Harris was a former ‘escort’.
There is no evidence at all for accompanying claims that there have been reports she used to be “an escort for judges, politicians and various powerful businessmen”.
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In October a supposed new campaign advert for Kamala Harris showed a child making a mess and included a voiceover of the Democrat candidate saying women have a right to choose abortion “so we don’t wind up living with a child like this”.
The video was an old John Lewis advert and the voiceover appeared to have been faked.
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