2026 U.S. Elections: FBI Debunks False Claim of 20,000 Stolen Ballots in Texas — The NYT
On the day of the U.S. midterm elections, social media was flooded with reports of 20,000 allegedly counterfeit ballots found in Houston, on which votes had been cast for Democrats. It was claimed that the FBI had discovered them during a raid on a warehouse on the evening before the election. However, the agency stated that it had not conducted any election-related operations and that the information about the fake ballots was false.
The FBI responded to social media posts on Tuesday, November 3. The agency stated that it was aware of posts claiming that agents had conducted a raid in Houston and found counterfeit ballots. “The FBI in Houston is aware of social media posts claiming that our field office conducted an election-related ‘raid’ and ‘discovered counterfeit ballots.’ This information is false; no election-related operation was conducted,” the bureau said in a statement.
Thus, the claim that 20,000 ballots—on which votes were cast for Democratic Party candidates—were allegedly seized has not been confirmed. The FBI separately emphasized that it did not conduct any raid as described in the reports.
Where the false story originated
According to independent disinformation researchers and fact-checkers, including NewsGuard, this story was actively circulating among right-wing social media accounts. It was shared on X, Truth Social, Bluesky, Telegram, and other platforms. The first post about the alleged raid, according to researchers, appeared on the page of a user with fewer than 3,000 followers. He runs several accounts supporting Donald Trump. Fact-checkers had previously debunked his claims on various political topics.
Despite the author’s small audience, the post quickly gained traction. According to researchers, it was viewed more than 400,000 times on X. At the same time, the post did not receive significant support from other influential users on the social network. A “Community Note”—a special explanation added by X users to clarify or verify information in a post—also appeared beneath it. However, this did not stop the rumor from spreading. According to estimates by the analytics firm PeakMetrics, this story generated over 15,000 posts on the X platform alone.
The hoax emerged amid other allegations of irregularities
The report of allegedly forged ballots found in Texas became part of a broader wave of false claims about voting fraud. On the same day, other unconfirmed reports of election problems were circulating on social media. In particular, there were claims of alleged malfunctions in voting machines in Florida. The FBI’s statement marked a notable response by the Donald Trump administration to disinformation on Election Day. As The New York Times notes, for the most part, the administration has refrained from commenting on the situation surrounding the election.
At the same time, over the past year, the Trump administration has scaled back some of its efforts aimed at more actively combating disinformation on Election Day. Support for states in countering threats to the security of the electoral process has also diminished. Against this backdrop, the FBI’s denial served as an important clarification: the story about a raid in Houston and 20,000 counterfeit ballots was not true. The agency confirmed that it did not conduct any election-related operations at the warehouse, according to The New York Times.
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