AAP FactCheck – The Democrats have not received 20 million fewer votes in the 2024 US election than they did in 2020, contrary to claims on social media.
The posts making the claim use preliminary vote counts that don't show up-to-date or final results.
The Democrats have now surpassed the level of 20 million fewer votes than 2020.
The claim is made in multiple Facebook posts1, with captions like: "Weird how +20 million Democrats just disappeared in a single election from 2020 to 2024.
"Joe Biden got 81 million votes. Kamala got 60? Where did they go?"
Posts are using the comparison between the tallies as evidence of fraud during the 2020 election, a false claim repeatedly pushed by Donald Trump.
The posts mainly appear on Facebook with a November 6 (US time zones) date, when votes were still being counted and full results had not been declared.
According to CNN2, the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris had received 69,045,972 votes as of 4pm AEDT on November 8 and votes continue to be counted.
The official vote count3 from the 2020 election showed Democrat winner Joe Biden received 81,284,666 votes, about 12 million more than 2024 at current counting.
The predicted turnout rate has slightly dropped to about 62.25 per cent in 2024 from the record high 66.38 per cent in 2020, according to data analysed by the University of Florida's Election Lab4.
The 2020 US election was widely reported5 as the most secure in history and no evidence of widespread voter fraud was ever found.
