Trump, MAGA are already claiming Virginia’s redistricting vote was ‘RIGGED’

Less than two hours after polls closed in Virginia for Tuesday’s special redistricting election, the Associated Press called the race: Voters approved the plan to counter President Donald Trump’s unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering in other states.

And right after the race was called, election deniers, anti-voting activists, MAGA faithful — and of course, Trump himself — began flooding the internet with claims that the election was rigged. 

The claims, presented without any evidence, are familiar: Democratic masterminds somehow engineered an influx of fraudulent mail-in ballots to tip the election just as the GOP vote was gaining traction. 

“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!,” Trump posted on Truth Social, ascribing the Democrats’ “Crooked Victory” to a “massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop.'”

But it went far beyond Trump.

“The Virginia Redistricting Gerrymandering election was RIGGED,” Wall Street Apes, a popular far-right X account, posted. “Democrats somehow skyrocketed 64,000 votes in just a 5 [sic] minutes, right when they needed them. When they added the votes the election flipped from ‘No’ to ‘Yes.’ All Democrats do is rig elections.”

In one video that has been shared by several prominent right-wing social media accounts, a conservative influencer who goes by “RigoStaRR” claimed “something isn’t adding up” because the vote count was updated with an overwhelming number of “Yes” votes in favor of redistricting within five minutes, tipping the election enough for the AP to make a call. 

Seth Keshel, a prominent election denier and anti-voting activist, insinuated on social media that Virginia’s election was rigged because of mail-in voting. Ed Martin, the far-right MAGA attorney who’s currently serving as DOJ’s pardon attorney, reposted Keshel’s claims on social media, adding, “See the Steal.”

Sidney Powell, the former Trump Campaign attorney who was charged for her involvement in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia, joined the chorus of claims of fraud. 

“The VA election should not be allowed to stand,” Powell wrote.

By Wednesday morning, the skepticism of the election results evolved into a full-blown conspiracy centered on Fairfax County, a Democratic stronghold in the northern part of the state. 

“Wake up, patriots. Fairfax County — Virginia’s deep-blue machine just dropped EXACTLY 35,000 YES votes on absentee mail ballots for the Democrats’ redistricting power grab,” Jack Danger, a right-wing influencer, posted on social media. “That’s 80%+ YES in one neat, round-number dump.

Other prominent far-right accounts with huge followings shared similar claims about Fairfax County.

“This is a MASSIVE outlier compared to every other county in the state,” one pro-MAGA account wrote. “The number is too perfect — exactly 35,000 on the dot. No one believes this is legitimate. Democrats are pulling the same mail-in ballot games again and the American people are FED UP with it.”

This story has been updated.