Virginia election website error sparks unfounded fraud claims

Virginia Democrat Shannon Taylor unseated longtime Republican Representative Rob Wittman as the party took control of the US House and Senate in key midterm elections. But posts alleging fraud are sharing a screenshot of unofficial results from Williamsburg City -- an area set to be represented by Taylor -- that appears to show turnout exceeding the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction. The city's director of elections said erroneous figures briefly displayed on the state's results website, reporting the total of all votes cast rather than the number of individual ballo ts.

"Congrats to Democrats in Williamsburg Virginia yesterday with their 118% 'historic' voter turnout out," the caption of a November 4, 2026 Facebook post begins.

It shares an image of Virginia's election results that appears to show voter turnout for the city exceeding the number of registered voters.

"They always cheat to win," an X post sharing the same image claimed.

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken November 6, 2026 Several posts across X, Facebook, and Instagram used the same image as alleged proof of voter fraud by the Democratic Party.

The crucial midterm elections dramatically transformed the balance of power in Washington, with Democrats notching historic victories across the country.

Taylor's victory in Virginia's 1st Congressional District flipped a seat held by Republicans for nearly 50 years.

But the screenshot spreading online is not evidence of fraud in the historic city. The inflated voter turnout figure was a ballot tally error quickly corrected by city election officials.

"During the initial Election Night reporting, the turnout section briefly reflected the total number of votes cast, rather than the total number of ballots," Tina Reitzel, the Director of Elections for the City of Williamsburg, told AFP in an email on November 5, 2026 (archived here).

For the City Council election, voters could choose up to two candidates for open seats, Reitzel said. The results page incorrectly tallied each vote for City Council as an individual ballot cast.

AFP found the earliest iteration of the image shared November 3, 2026 on Facebook at 9:11 pm (0211 GMT) by John Curran, a former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who commented: "Trying to figure out voting and seeing results like this."

According to Williamsburg City's Reitzel, the website was corrected by 9:30 pm (0230 GMT).

Curran acknowledged the update by sharing a second image in the comments of his post, but the original image had already spread to other platforms.

As of November 6, the website shows Williamsburg City voters cast 6,875 ballots, which represents a 53.66 percent voter turnout (archived here).

Screenshot of Virginia's unofficial election results taken November 6, 2026 The unofficial results page of the Virginia Department of Elections states that local general registrar offices upload data on the night of an election before they have been certified (archived here).

The State Board of Elections will verify the results from each local board and Virginia will certify the results on the first Monday of December (archived here).

Read more of AFP's fact-checks about the 2026 US midterms here.

Virginia election website error sparks unfounded fraud claims

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