### Experts Refute Fraud Allegations in 2024 Presidential Election

In the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris's defeat in the 2024 presidential election, some of her supporters are alleging fraud on social media platforms. Prominent among them is Wayne Madsen, a writer with a history of spreading conspiracy theories, who suggested in a November 6 Threads post that the election was "massively hacked." He implicated figures like Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin, alleging that 20 million Democratic votes had vanished.

Another user echoed similar sentiments, urging Harris not to concede and citing a perceived discrepancy between the vote counts for Harris and former President Donald Trump. "We need an investigation. This election was stolen," read the post.

However, these claims have been strongly disputed by election experts and officials. Jen Easterly, the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, assured the public that the election process had been secure and that there was no evidence of malicious activity affecting the election's integrity. "Our election infrastructure has never been more secure," Easterly stated, emphasizing the peaceful and secure nature of the democratic exercise.

Ishan Mehta, director of media and democracy at Common Cause, also weighed in, affirming that the 2024 election was conducted smoothly and securely. Common Cause, with volunteers monitoring polling sites and vote-counting centers across all 50 states, reported no significant issues that would support claims of widespread fraud. Any minor glitches that did occur were attributed to machine or human error, both of which are routinely corrected without impacting the election's outcome, according to Mehta.

Experts have pointed out that voter turnout naturally fluctuates between elections. Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, noted that various factors like candidate enthusiasm and campaign strategies greatly influence turnout. He emphasized that fewer votes for the Democratic candidate this cycle simply indicate a shift in voter participation, not fraud.

David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, described election denial as fundamentally antidemocratic. He highlighted that the 2024 election is on track to have one of the highest voter turnouts in U.S. history, based on data from the University of Florida.

As of the afternoon of November 7, Trump had secured 72.8 million votes, while Harris had approximately 68 million. For comparison, in the 2020 election, Trump received 74.2 million votes and President Joe Biden garnered 81.2 million.

Election science experts, including Gronke, asserted that there is no credible evidence of fraud at a scale that would impact the election results. "We pay very close attention to elections at every level," Gronke said, dismissing the allegations as baseless.