People vote at a high school in New York on Nov. 5.KARSTEN MORAN/The New York Times News Service
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False claims on social media allege that Elon Musk facilitated election fraud with his satellite internet service provider Starlink, manipulating the presidential vote count through equipment such as ballot tabulators.
Voting equipment doesn’t use Starlink
Election officials, including from multiple U.S. swing states, said their voting equipment doesn’t use Starlink and is not even connected to the internet. States have additional security measures to ensure that the vote count is accurate, according to experts. Election officials and security agencies have reported no significant issues with the 2024 race.
Elon Musk is the CEO SpaceX, the parent company of Starlink.ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
“It is not possible that Starlink was used to hack or change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election,” David Becker, founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote in an e-mail. “This, quite simply, did not happen, and could not happen, thanks to the security measures we have in place, and these conspiracy theories echo other disinformation we’ve heard over the past several years.”
Mr. Becker also explained that the nearly 10,000 election jurisdictions in the United States use a wide range of voting machines that are not connected to the internet while voting occurs. Almost all votes are also recorded on paper ballots, which are audited by hand to confirm the results of electronic tabulators.
“If anyone tried to interfere with the machines to rig the election, it would be discovered through multiple means, including reconciling the registered voters who cast ballots with the number of votes, as well as the audits,” he said.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said in a statement on Nov. 6 that CISA has “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
Screenshots from X of false claims that satellite ISP Starlink was used to affect votes in the presidential election.X
Election officials in North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania – three of the seven swing states Trump won – told the AP that their voting equipment is never connected to the internet. In some cases, this is mandated by state law.
“Satellite-based internet devices were not used to tabulate or upload vote counts in North Carolina,” said Patrick Gannon, a spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections. “In addition, our tabulated results are encrypted from source to destination preventing results being modified in transit. And no, tabulators and ballot-marking devices are never connected to the internet in North Carolina.”
Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, called the claims spreading online “absolutely conspiratorial nonsense.”
“We don’t use Starlink equipment for any part of our elections, and never have,” he said.
Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin also employ stringent precautions to protect the integrity of their voting equipment.
Fact check: No, lower turnout for Harris compared to Biden is not proof of 2020 U.S. election fraud
Starlink used for non-voting connectivity at some polling places
Some posts online pointed to a local news segment in which the registrar of voters in Tulare County, California, noted that internet connectivity at the county’s poll sites was improved this year owing to Starlink. Stephanie Hill, a systems and procedures analyst for the agency, wrote in an e-mail that “this connection is strictly for voter check-in purposes only and in no way a part of our voting system.” California is among the states that prohibit their voting equipment from being connected to the internet.
A pilot program in Arizona’s Coconino, Apache and Navajo counties intended to “enhance connectivity in underserved areas” used Starlink systems for electronic poll book synchronization, according to JP Martin, a spokesperson for the Arizona secretary of state’s office. The state’s election equipment is air-gapped, one of many security measures.
“Air-gapped” is when a secured computer or network is physically isolated from unsecured systems, including the internet and local area networks.
Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, agreed that the idea that Starlink was used to rig the election is absurd.
“While Starlink provided connectivity in a number of jurisdictions for electronic poll books (EPBs) in this election, neither Starlink nor other types of communication networks play any role in counting votes,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Our elections produce huge quantities of physical evidence. A satellite system like Starlink cannot steal that.”