As Election Day approached, social media users shared a video of a man who said he planned to vote multiple times in New York City.
“I’m here in New York about to illegally vote for Zohran Mamdani six times,” the man in the TikTok video reshared on X says as he walks down a city street.
The caption of the Nov. 2 X post says, “VOTER FRAUD ALERT!! This guy just admitted he was on his way to ILLEGALLY vote for Mamdani six times! I live in (New York state) & there’s no ID requirement, you just sign your name. He could just lie about his address & vote in multiple precincts!”
This video, shared widelyis misleading. It was originally published Oct. 29 on TikTok by a punk rock band member who wrote in the comments that he was “purposefully (spreading) misinformation over the internet.”
Voter ID is required to register to vote in New York. State law prohibits people from voting more than once. A law that permits registered voters to cast ballots without showing their IDs at the polling site does not change that.
Mamdani, a New York State assemblymember and Democratic Socialist, won the Democratic primary election in the New York City mayoral race. He faces former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a longtime Democrat who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the Nov. 4 election.
Who can vote in the New York general election?
Before people can cast a ballot, they must register to vote. That involves providing identificationsuch as a New York driver’s license number or a Social Security number, and attesting that the information they are providing is correct. The state’s voter eligibility laws require that a person:
Be a U.S. citizen.
Be at least 18 years old.
Be a resident of the state, county, city or village for at least 30 days before the election.
Not be in prison for a felony conviction.
Not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court.
Not claim the right to vote elsewhere, meaning that the person is not registered to vote in another state, county or municipality in the U.S.
Kathleen McGrath,a New York State Board of Elections spokesperson, told PolitiFact in a Nov. 3 email that sometimes a person who didn’t meet verification requirements while seeking to register shows up at a poll site seeking to vote. In those instances, elections officials require the person to present valid identification on site.
All voters must provide their signatures when voting as a means of voter ID, under the New York State Constitution Article II, Section 7. Poll workers confirm a voter’s identity by matching their signature to official records.
The County Board of Electionswhich conducts local elections, operates voting sites and maintains voter registration lists, uses electronic pollbooks to check in voters at poll sites. The poll books are updated in real time as people cast ballots. If a voter has checked in at a poll site, they would be unable to check-in at another poll site during the same election.
Erica Smitka, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, told PolitiFact in a Nov. 4 email that because voting records are constantly changing, all voter list maintenance is conducted by bipartisan teams to ensure the process is fair, accurate, and transparent.
“Another person cannot just say a voter’s name and vote on their behalf,” McGrath said.
Doing so would also require forging the voter’s signature.
“That action would be a felony,” McGrath said.
McGrath said that if a voter has requested a mail ballot, they will be unable to cast a ballot in person on a machine and must complete a provisional ballot. Post-election, the County Board of Elections conducts an audit to ensure all ballots cast via affidavit are not from voters who have already cast another ballot.
If people are not registered to vote, they will be turned away.
Donald Trump encountered some of these safeguards first-hand in 2004, years before he ran for president. “Access Hollywood” followed him as he sought to vote in New York City. The show captured him being turned away from various polling sites because poll workers said he wasn’t registered to vote at those locations. Access Hollywood said Trump ultimately filled out a provisional ballot in the backseat of a car, after learning that his issues related to his son Donald Trump Jr.’s change of address.
McGrath said voting fraud is a rare occurrence because of the Boards of Elections record keeping.
“Because Boards of Elections keep permanent, individualized records of which elections a person participates in, the probability of detection after the fact is exceedingly high,” McGrath said. She said this is likely why there is little evidence in the U.S. of voter fraud-related crimes.
Our ruling
An X post said, New York state has “no ID requirement” to vote, and people could lie about their address and “vote in multiple precincts.”
New York voters are not required to present ID when voting, but they are required to present valid ID to register to vote. State law includes numerous safeguards to prevent anyone from casting more than one ballot in an election — and doing so is a felony. Poll workers confirm voters’ identities by matching their signatures to official records.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.
