Texas Debunks ‘Totally Inaccurate’ Claims of Voting Fraud Being Spread by Elon Musk

Elon Musk helped publicize a claim that “illegals” are registering to vote in several U.S. states on Tuesday. But, like so many of Musk’s tweets on X recently, the billionaire’s fearmongering crumbles under the smallest amount of scrutiny. And in this case, the state of Texas is calling bullshit.

“The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania,” the account End Wokeness tweeted on Tuesday.

The account claimed that Texas added 1,250,710 new voters through the program, Pennsylvania added 580,513, and Arizona added 220,731. But that simply isn’t true, at least according to Texas state officials.

The End Wokeness account added that Help America Vote Verification (HAVV), a program that helps verify voter identification through central databases, “allows voters to register with a Social Security Number (4 digits),” falsely claiming that, “Illegals are not able to get licenses there. But they can get Social Security Cards (for work authorization permits).”

Musk helped give the tweet more visibility, adding “extremely concerning,” to a quote-tweet of the false claim. But Texas is disputing the claim.

“It is totally inaccurate that 1.2 million voters have registered to vote in Texas without a photo ID this year,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a statement published online on Wednesday. “The truth is our voter rolls have increased by 57,711 voters since the beginning of 2024. This is less than the number of people registered in the same timeframe in 2022 (about 65,000) and in 2020 (about 104,000).”

“When Texans register to vote, they must provide a driver’s license number or a Social Security number. When an individual registers to vote with just a SSN, the state verifies that the SSN is authentic,” Nelson continued.

Nelson also noted the various safeguards in place to make sure only eligible voters are casting a ballot, while also explaining that information about the number of times states have asked to verify a social security number might be incorrect on the federal program’s website.

“While federal law allows individuals to register to vote without a photo ID, Texans must actually show proof of ID to vote. The 1.2 million figure comes from the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) website, which is supposed to report the number of times states have asked to verify an individual’s social security number. The SSA number is clearly incorrect, and we are working now to determine why there is such a large discrepancy,” Nelson said.

Musk’s misinformation has caused at least one potential legislator in Texas to call for a special session of the legislature to address voting security, according to Jasper Scherer, a politics reporter at the Texas Tribune.

“The Governor needs to call an immediate special session on election security,” Texas State Representative candidate David Lowe tweeted on Tuesday.

Texas needs to call a special session this year if the legislature wants to address anything in 2024 since it only meets every other year. Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota are the only states with legislatures that also meet just once every two years.

But don’t expect Musk’s misinformation on X to get corrected anytime soon. The billionaire built himself a safe space where he spews invective about immigrants, even after a video surfaced that appeared to show Musk admitting he was perhaps stretching the limits of his visa when he came to the U.S. and started his company Zip2. Or, as his brother Kimbal Musk put it, the two men were illegal immigrants.

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