There were not more votes than voters in Pennsylvania

apnews.com ^ | December 29, 2020 | ALI SWENSON

[Berlin_Freeper]

CLAIM: There were 205,000 more votes than voters in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. This analysis is based on incomplete data, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

THE FACTS: A misleading claim about election results from a group of Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania is circulating widely on social media a week before Congress meets to reaffirm Joe Biden’s decisive presidential win.

The claim emerged in a release from the Republican state Rep. Frank Ryan and several others on Monday.

“A comparison of official county election results to the total number of voters who voted on Nov. 3, 2020, as recorded by the Department of State shows that 6,962,607 total ballots were reported as being cast, while DoS/SURE system records indicate that only 6,760,230 total voters actually voted,” the release said.

The claim then spread to several right-wing websites and social media influencers, including Trump, whose tweet claiming Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters was retweeted 117,000 times.

However, these claims rely on incomplete data, according to Wanda Murren, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of State, who called the lawmakers’ release “obvious misinformation.”

[TheBattman]

I might would believe the AP, had the numbers released hadn’t come with the state’s own documentation...

[bray]

Someone is lying, best guess is it is the media covering for their Party.

[PGR88]

However, these claims rely on incomplete data, according to Wanda Murren, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of State, who called the lawmakers’ release “obvious misinformation.”

And yet, nearly 2 months after the election, Wanda and her team still can’t offer “complete data."

[SuperLuminal]

Incomplete and never to be completed...
Just up in a puff of smoke...

[cld51860]

Because we trust the PA Secretary of State.

/s

[CharlesWayneCT]

i looked at the SURE site earlier today, and it showed about 6.95 million voters, about the same as votes cast, except its not described that way so it is hard to know if this is the comparison.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

The election as held Nov. 3rd. “Incomplete data” as of Dec. 28th. I call BULLSHIT.

Either Penn. has the dumbest, most incompetent vote counters and equipment or their was massive fraud that has been covered up by a very corrupt Democrat cabal in the state government.

[Eagle Forgotten]

I don't recall anyone saying there were more votes than registered voters in an entire state. So then they give as their example some statewide numbers. The AP is lying.

Actually, this was said. A claim of more votes than registered voters in an entire state was made and widely circulated on social media, and thus found its way into print. For example, a pro-Trump columnist on an Israeli website wrote:

"Later in the day, both Wisconsin and Michigan flipped to Vice President Joe Biden. I was informed at noon that Wisconsin reported a 101% voter turnout (3,129,000 registered voters with 3,170,206 counted). That suggests that the same voter voted more than once. In 2016 Wisconsin also had voter irregularities and Donald Trump was awarded close to another 1000 votes that had either not been counted or were blocked in some way.

"In Michigan 105% of registered voters voted (5,453,000 registered voters, 5,736,581 actually voted)."

Link: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290646

A UK source reported that Donald Trump Jr. also picked up the charge about Wisconsin: https://news.sky.com/story/us-election-2020-donald-trumps-voter-fraud-claims-debunked-12132000

The AP story in the OP did address the actual charge made in Pennsylvania, namely that the official tally of votes added up to more than the number of voters. The story then went on to refer to "similar claims" based on the number of registered voters (as opposed to the number of people who showed up to vote). The story did not impute those "similar claims" to the recent Pennsylvania report, but gave the data on registered voters just in case anyone made the claim about Pennsylvania, given that it had been made about Wisconsin and Michigan.

Incidentally, the claim about Wisconsin arose because someone carelessly used the figure for registered voters as of the 2018 midterms. If you aren't meticulous about all the details, you can end up creating a false charge that discredits the whole enterprise.

The big flaw in the AP story is the omission that others have noted. If the state's response is that the compilation of the data hasn't yet been completed, a reporter should ask the obvious follow-up question: Why not?

[Candor7]

here were not more votes than voters in Pennsylvania...and these are not the droids you’re looking for either.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In Pennsylvania my Irish Setter would be a voter.

[lasereye]

The claim that the compilation of the data hasn’t been completed strikes me as not credible. I think they’re just lying.

[MortMan]

They also completely changed the claim being made, constructing a convenient straw man to knock down. The claim is that more votes were counted than voters that voted in the election, not voters on the state’s rolls.