‘Seemed fishy to me’: Weird pre-election voting push is re-evaluated in the wake of Donald Trump victory

With an election as massive and significant as the showdown between President-elect Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, it hardly comes as a surprise that claims of voter fraud are being pushed out into the public eye — most of which go unproven. One TikTok video in particular, however, will definitely give you pause.

In the wake of Trump’s victory, the U.S. is arguably at a bigger divide now than it has ever been. Considering the Jan. 6 Capitol riots at the hands of Trump’s supporters back in 2021 that left an undeniable stain on our democracy, members of the Democratic Party are now convinced that Harris should not have conceded the election so quickly and instead demanded a recount — especially now that claims of election fraud are at an all-time high.

In the aforementioned TikTok, shared by user @coookiesworld, one specific claim of voter fraud was brought directly under the microscope. In the video, @cookiesworld explained a situation where two young girls knocked on her door in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and asked if she wanted to vote in the presidential election on a device that “looked like an iPad.”

In response, @cookiesworld insisted she would instead cast her vote at the polls, although the entire ordeal shed light on a bizarre possibility that this ploy was executed to make voters believe their vote had already been cast on the “iPad,” which would mean they wouldn’t need to physically go to the polls to vote. Unsure of the magnitude of the situation itself, she took her experience to TikTok, where she asked others if they had experienced this scenario as well, insisting that the entire interaction “seemed too fishy.”

Now, you might be asking yourself who exactly would fall for a scheme like this, but the truth is the possibility of voters falling for this tactic is extremely high. Considering how often the elderly are victims of online scams, it absolutely wouldn’t be surprising if an older person fell for this ruse — especially with the advanced age of technology. The TikToker pointed out this possibility in a separate update while explaining that voters with English as a second language also could have easily fallen for this scheme.

Naturally, a TikTok of this important magnitude has generated a decent number of reactions already, with a plethora of fellow TikTokers encouraging @cookiesworld to contact the FBI, the police, and several news outlets to report this information. Other commenters related this situation to a comment Trump made about not needing more votes in the election because “we already got plenty of votes.” With those remarks, onlookers over on TikTok are now wondering whether or not this tactic was Trump’s “secret weapon” all along.

To add a cherry on top of this odd sundae, other commenters on the video also overheard rumblings of similar experiences in states such as Arizona, New Mexico, and yes, Pennsylvania. Other TikTokers mentioned people showing up to polls believing they were already registered, only for them to find out their names were not even showing up in the voting system.

Regardless, the actual basis of this argument is nothing without concrete proof, which has yet to be officially provided regarding claims of voting fraud. For now, Joe Biden has encouraged America to move forward in a speech today and to accept the election results, although it’s clear TikTok isn’t going down without a fight.