Fact Check: Post Falsely Claims 60,000 Children Voted in Georgia 2020 Election

An erroneous post circulating on social media has falsely claimed that over 60,000 children voted in the 2020 election in Georgia. The claim has been debunked by state officials and fact-checking efforts. Here’s a closer look at the situation:

The Claim: An August 17 Facebook post shared an image of an election worker sorting ballots and included a post on X (formerly Twitter) that alleged widespread election fraud in Georgia during the 2020 election. Among the false claims in the post, it asserted that “Shockingly, 66,248 individuals under 18 were allowed to vote.”

Fact Check: This claim has been categorically debunked by Georgia state officials. The claim resurfaced as former President Donald Trump and his allies were indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, over their attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. The claim also appeared in a list of false statements within the 98-page indictment.

Charged with making false statements, Ray Stallings Smith III, an attorney for Trump’s 2020 campaign, echoed the same claim during a Georgia Senate hearing in December 2020. The claim was deemed untrue, and Smith is currently facing felony charges related to these false statements.

Georgia state officials have repeatedly clarified that no one under the age of 18 voted in the 2020 election. Ryan Germany, the general counsel of the secretary of state’s office at that time, confirmed that while four people requested ballots before they turned 18, they reached the legal voting age before the election, making them eligible to vote.

Moreover, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger addressed this claim in a January 2021 letter to three GOP members of Congress from Georgia. Raffensperger emphasized that no voters younger than 18 participated in the election and that false claims of election fraud have been a persistent issue from both sides of the political spectrum.

Other False Claims: The debunked post contained several other false claims that were included in the indictment:

Claim: More than 2,000 felons voted illegally.
Claim: More than 2,000 people weren’t registered.
Claim: More than 10,000 dead people voted.
Claim: More than 1,000 voters registered using post office boxes.
Claim: Nearly 400 people “double-voted” across states.

These false claims have been refuted by Georgia officials, indicating that no evidence supports these assertions.