You might think that in this age of information, ridiculous rumors and historically ingrained mistruths about voting and elections would be on the decline. But somehow, here we are in 2024, in Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy, with Google at our fingertips, and … swimming in a sea of voting myths that is deeper and more dangerous than ever.
“A story is more powerful than reality,” says WURD evening radio host James Peterson. Peterson, who has a PhD in English, has a point. Lately, we modern American humans have developed a terrible habit of believing the unbelievable and then using technology to spread that misinformation, in defiance of verifiable facts, common sense — and the endless resources at our disposal to discern truth from fiction.
So, at the risk of giving even more oxygen to the kind of incendiary misinformation that threatens to light our democracy ablaze, here is the truth behind common myths and misconceptions about voting and elections — tailored to you Philadelphia voters, whom we entrust will turn out in impressive numbers to vote before or on November 5, 2024.
LONG-HELD VOTING MYTHS
MYTH: My vote doesn’t matter.
TRUTH: Your vote counts just as much as anyone else’s. No matter if you live on Rittenhouse Square or Down Norf, if you’re rich or poor, 18 or 81, it’s one person per vote.
TRUTH BEHIND THE MYTH: You feel like your vote doesn’t matter because it can seem like a drop in a bucket. More than 158 million people voted for president in 2020. Will a single vote make or break a national election? No. But abstain, and you’ll have to live with the results if the election doesn’t work out the way you want it to. Plus, voting feels incredible.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: If you live in Pennsylvania, you could say your vote actually matters more than a vote in, say, NJ. This is because PA is two things: 1. A battleground state, so politically evenly divided that national offices — like POTUS, but also U.S. Senator — are almost always up for grabs. 2. PA is also swing state with a lot of — 19 — electoral votes and we could determine the outcome of the presidential election.
MYTH: People will know who I voted for — and judge me for it.
TRUTH: Your ballot is secret. No one knows who you vote for.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: People, especially elected officials, know if you vote, but not for whom you vote. Elected officials pay attention to who votes and who does not. They call people who vote in every election “super voters.” Politicians listen to super voters more than they listen to infrequent voters or non-voters. So, voting really is power — for you.
MYTH: If I vote, I’ll get called for jury duty.
TRUTH: Checking voter rolls is one of many ways Philadelphia and Pennsylvania create jury lists. Others include: Tax records. Municipal lists of addresses. Participation in any state or city program. School enrollment. So, you’d kind of have to live under a rock not to get called to show up for jury duty. Might as well vote while you’re at it.
POPULATION-SPECIFIC VOTING MYTHS
MYTH: I can’t vote because I’ve been to prison or been convicted of a crime.
TRUTH: Two categories of people who have criminal records cannot vote.
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- You cannot vote if you are currently incarcerated for a felony conviction.
- You cannot vote if, in the last four years, you have been convicted of violating any part of the PA Election Code.
Everyone else, including people who are incarcerated for a misdemeanor, detained pretrial, on parole, on house arrest (or have previously been in any of those situations) can vote.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: People who’ve been detained, convicted or incarcerated could be a powerful voting bloc. But they’re not, yet. In PA, only 66,056 of the 203,409 people released from state prisons between January 2000 and October 2023 were registered to vote. If they all registered and voted, returning citizens could swing a national election.
TRUTH BEHIND THE MYTH: It wasn’t always this way. Up until 2000, if you’d been convicted of a felony in PA, you could not vote in PA. On December 26, 2000, that changed. The Commonwealth Court (where judges are elected!) said prohibiting these folks from voting was unconstitutional. Now, people convicted of felonies can vote — and organizations like the Abolitionist Law Center are working to register returning citizens.
MYTH: I’m a college student from out of state, so I can’t vote in Pennsylvania.
TRUTH: As long as you’ve lived in Pennsylvania 30 days before Election Day (this year, that means since October 6, 2024), you can vote in PA. (Note: You must register to vote by October 21, 2024.)
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: There’s an entire federal law that mandates that colleges and universities make good-faith efforts to encourage their students to register and vote.
MYTH: I need help voting, but I can’t bring someone to vote with me.
TRUTH: You are allowed to bring a child, service dog or any kind of helper into the voting booth with you — and are encouraged to do so if you need help reading the ballot. That said, if you don’t want someone in there with you, they are, by law, prohibited from being there.
MODERN VOTING MYTHS
MYTH: I must bring a state-issued identification to vote.
TRUTH: Not usually. If you are voting for the first time — or have moved and are voting in a new place based on your new address — then you may be asked to show a form of identification. But that ID need not be state-issued. In addition to a driver’s license or passport or government ID, first-time or recently moved voters can bring their student or employee ID, voter registration card, a gun permit, utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government check. As long as it has your name and address on it, you’re good.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: Voter ID laws have become more prevalent across the U.S. — but not in PA. In our case, congressional gridlock has thwarted legislation that sought to increase voter ID requirements.
MYTH: Mail-in (absentee) ballots and provisional ballots are counted only if an election is close.
TRUTH: They all get counted. Every single ballot. No matter what.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: Pennsylvania counts every mail-in, absentee, provisional and emergency vote. The reasons PA’s vote count takes longer — much longer — is that unlike in 43 other states, our election law prohibits “pre-processing.” Vote counters can open nary an envelope (and each mail-in ballot has two) until 7am on November 5, 2024. (Legislation to allow vote counters to get to work sooner has stalled in Harrisburg.)
MYTH BEHIND THE TRUTH: You may recall the scene in November 2020 outside the Convention Center: dancing mailboxes, block party vibes, but also randos who packed up their guns and drove up from Virginia to make trouble. This all took place because our City Commissioners had 375,000 ballots to open, flatten and record — a process that takes several minutes per ballot.
Important: If you plan to vote via absentee or mail-in ballot, you must register to do so by October 29, 2024.
Also important: If you miss the October 29 deadline — because you were sick, unexpectedly out of town, etc. — you can apply for a last-minute emergency ballot online, or stop by a City Commissioners’ Satellite Elections Office for help.
MYTH: Illegal voting is rampant, especially among non-citizens.
TRUTH: Voter fraud is a serious crime that happens approximately 0.0001 percent of the time or, to be mathematically precise, almost never. Even the conservative think tank, Project 2025 generator and staunch voting fraud monitor the Heritage Foundation found just three cases of voter fraud in PA in the 2020 election — and those three fraudsters were all U.S. citizens. More details below.
TRUTH BEHIND THE TRUTH. Most Americans trust the election process. Almost no non-citizens even try to vote.
(According to the Heritage Foundation, in 2020, PA’s two out of three U.S. citizen vote fraudsters tried to vote for Trump on behalf of their deceased mothers. The third, a registered Republican, voted legally and then illegally cast a second ballot in person on behalf of his son, a registered Democrat — a poll worker noticed and the illicit voter got arrested.)
MYTH: Voting machines are prone to break or hacking.
TRUTH: Voting machines rarely break and are hardwired or wirelessly connected to any communication system. Every voting machine in Philadelphia gets double and triple-checked in the runup to Election Day. Because these machines lack the ability to do anything except process your vote — because they can’t transmit messaging in any way — they are unhackable.
MYTH: Hand counts are more accurate than machine counts.
TRUTH: Vote counting machines just work better — faster and more accurately — than people do. Also, people cost more to operate.
Every Voice, Every Vote funds Philadelphia media and community organizations to expand access to civic news and information. The coalition is led by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 is provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.
MORE HELPFUL ELECTION INFO FROM THE CITIZEN