Elon Musk’s Starlink stealing votes? An election conspiracy explained

A new conspiracy theory is circulating on social media, alleging that Elon Musk used his satellite internet company, Starlink, to rig the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Voting machine companies and election officials are speaking out against the claims.

The theory suggests that Starlink, developed by Musk’s SpaceX to provide high-speed internet worldwide, was somehow connected to voting machines and manipulated vote counts.

Videos shared on TikTok, which have been viewed millions of times, claim that California and other swing states used Starlink to tally and count ballots.

“This woman just made the most convincing case for Biden to investigate the election,” one video caption, shared by a user on X, said. “She exposes Starlink.”

The conspiracy also spread on Instagram’s messaging app, Threads.

“Musk’s Starlink uploaded votes in swing states,” posts said. “Starlink satellites exploding, destroying evidence.”

According to The Associated Press, voting machines are generally not connected to the internet. While a few jurisdictions do transmit unofficial election results through private networks, this happens only after ballots have been counted and memory cards containing vote tallies have been removed from machines.

Chip Trowbridge, chief technology officer at Clear Ballot, a company approved by the Election Assistance Commission, said machines used for scanning ballots are not capable of connecting to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth networks.

“Those systems absolutely cannot have any network,” Trowbridge siad. “In fact, if you look at the machines from Clear Ballot, the only wire that comes out of them is a power cord.”

PolitiFact was among the outlets to debunk the theory, speaking to election officials in swing states who confirmed that election security protocols prevent voting equipment from ever being connected to the internet during ballot tabulation.

The conspiracy theory gained further traction after a Starlink satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded on Nov. 10, with some speculating it was an attempt to destroy evidence of a stolen election. However, PolitiFact also spoke with NASA officials, who said such reentries have been happening “almost daily for the past few years.”

Social media platforms are taking action against the latest conspiracy.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is flagging posts as part of its efforts to combat misinformation. Posts related to the conspiracy on X now include “Community Notes,” providing context and debunking the Starlink election-rigging claims.

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