Viral video appearing to show a poll worker destroying ballots in Pennsylvania is fake

With less than two weeks to go until the 2024 general election, a video appearing to show ballot tampering in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a key battleground area, has gone viral. 

The video appears to show an individual opening returned mail-in ballots from Bucks County voters marked for Donald Trump. The person says “[Expletive] Donald Trump” before tearing up the ballot. 

When the person in the video finds a ballot marked for Kamala Harris, they place it in an envelope and set it aside. This post with the video that has since been deleted, had more than 580,000 views.

People online have questioned if the video is real, and if so, why haven't there been any related arrests?

THE QUESTION

Is the video of a poll worker tearing up ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, real?

THE SOURCES

• Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Board of Elections
• Pennsylvania election law
• Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
• Yardley Borough Police Department
• Bucks County Republican Committee
• Statement from Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party, via the Bucks County Democratic Committee

THE ANSWER

No, the video of a poll worker tearing up ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, isn’t real.

WHAT WE FOUND

The video showing an unknown person appearing to rip up legitimate Trump ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is fake, officials confirmed. 

“The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” according to a statement from the board. James O’Malley, a board of elections spokesperson, told VERIFY that the envelope shown in the viral video is glossy, while Bucks County does not use glossy envelopes. This video created for Bucks County voters demonstrates what legitimate ballots and envelopes look like.

O’Malley told VERIFY once a ballot is returned to the Board of Elections, it is held sealed and unopened in a secure room that is under 24/7 video surveillance. The Board of Elections doesn’t begin processing ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, which is the earliest time allowed under state law. That process involves removing the ballot from the outer “return envelope” and then from the secrecy envelope. Ballots are then flattened for scanning.

The fake video has been reported to law enforcement agencies, including the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the FBI and the Pennsylvania Department of State. 

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said that their “investigation has concluded that this video was fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.” The Yardley Borough Police Department issued a similar statement. 

The Bucks County Republican Committee also recognized the video as fake, calling it “disinformation, aimed at scaring voters and dissuading them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in ballot process.”  

The local Republican party also noted the mailing envelopes in the viral video lack features typically seen on returned ballots, like missing return addresses.

Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party, labeled the video “obviously fraudulent” and said it was created to “cast doubt on our vote by mail system, and ultimately, the outcome of the presidential election.”

VERIFY reached out to the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.