Fact Check: Digitally manipulated graphics of US presidential election exit poll goes viral

Americans are headed to the polls today to vote for the country’s next president. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are holding their final campaign events in battleground states. Harris and Trump each need at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. In the middle of this, A graphic that shows Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in the Texas vote counts is spreading on social media. The image, originally posted on November 4, features CNN branding and indicates that Harris is winning the state with 51.8 percent of the vote. While sharing the exit poll users wrote “Hey Texas, looks like they are stealing your election.”

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Moreover, several users shared this video and made similar claims. The link can be seen here, here and here

Fact Check

During the investigation, DFRAC found that the claim was false. We found a official X handle of ‘CNN Comunications’ tweeted on 4 Nov, 2024 with the caption “This image is completely fabricated and manipulated and it never aired on any CNN platform.”

Furthermore, On the bottom left corner a graphic says: “Polls closed 9:00 ET”. We visited the website of ‘VoteTexas.Gov’ and found that the timing of polls is 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

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Conclusion

It is evident from the DFRAC’s fact check that the graphic showing of CNN Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in the Texas is false since CNN calls this graphic fabricated and manipulated on his X handle.