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| - Have rigged voting machines in Fulton County, Georgia, and North Carolina been seized or destroyed by "white hats," as an article by Real Raw News said? No, that's not true: State election boards in North Carolina and Georgia told Lead Stories that no machines have been seized or destroyed as of this writing, and there is no evidence of rigging. The article provided no proof to substantiate its claim. The Real Raw News website carries a disclaimer that its content includes "humody, parody and satire." The site has a record of publishing fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article by Real Raw News on October 20, 2024, (archived here) that read, in part:
Early voting has begun in several states across the country, and White Hats have already seized or destroyed rigged voting machines in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee ...
As reported this week, White Hats seized compromised machines from a Fulton County, Georgia, library.
"White hats" are people QAnon followers believe expose the supposed corruption of powerful senior officials, according to an Anti-Defamation League definition.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Real Raw News screenshot taken Tue Oct 22 23:58:00 2024 UTC)
In an email to Lead Stories received on October 29, 2024, Mike Hassinger, press secretary of the Georgia Secretary of State Elections Division (archived here), told Lead Stories that to date "no machines in Georgia have been seized."
Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez, a spokesperson for Georgia's Fulton County Government (archived here), also told Lead Stories that there is no evidence to support claims about county election machines. In an email to Lead Stories received on October 30, 2024, she wrote:
Fulton County's elections systems are secure and any allegations to the contrary are false.
We urge voters to be aware of false claims and to obtain their information from trustworthy sources.
Patrick Gannon, a public information officer at the North Carolina State Board of Elections (archived here), told Lead Stories that this claim is false. In an email received on October 31, 2024, he wrote:
There is zero evidence of this in North Carolina. While the 'article' -- and I use that term loosely -- suggests in the first paragraph that 'White Hats have already seized or destroyed rigged voting machines' in North Carolina, it never provides a shred of evidence to back that up.
Gannon added, "There is also no evidence that 'Marines in Rutherford County found armed FEMA agents overseeing early voting at Isothermal Community College,' as the Real Raw News article claimed.
Lead Stories also contacted the Tennessee State Election Commission (archived here) for comment. We will update this article when they respond.
Real Raw News
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that declares the site does not stand by the contents of the stories, calling them entertainment. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. ... We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks regarding the 2024 U.S. general election can be found here.
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