Stephen King’s Post About Republicans and Fraudulent Ballots Goes Viral

Author Stephen King’s recent remarks about Republicans and fraudulent ballots has taken off online, as he responded to a post shared by Elon Musk about voter ID.

The Shining author is a frequent and vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, having recently mocked him ahead of the September 10 presidential election debate with Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and he has accused Trump and the Supreme court of lying.

Since the last presidential election, photo ID laws have been implemented in four states, which brings the total count of states with these laws to 10, with three additional states making their ID laws stricter, according to Statista.

In July, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act was passed, with 216 Republicans and five Democrats voting to pass the bill, with 198 Democrats voting against it.

Musk made a post on X, formerly Twitter, which he bought in 2022, where he shared a list of countries that require Voter ID, along with the caption: “Why not America? Those who oppose voter ID are doing so to commit fraud.”

At the time of writing, this post had been viewed almost 23 million times.

King responded to Musk, writing: “There have been very few cases of voter fraud in America, and most of those who have been caught casting fraudulent ballots are Republicans.”

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There have been very few cases of voter fraud in America, and most of those who have been caught casting fraudulent ballots are Republicans. https://t.co/jiRc691mhb

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 1, 2024

Newsweek has reached out to King via his website for comment.

Musk quickly responded to King’s post, writing: “When no voter ID is required and you can mail in the ballots, fraud obviously becomes impossible to prove. But when ID is required and you have to vote in person, then fraud is easy to identify.”

He continued: “In Mexico, they solved a lot of the voter fraud just by citizens counting how many people went in to vote vs ballots counted. That was massive breakthrough.”

Newsweek has reached out to a representative for Musk via email for comment.

Voter ID laws, in particular, those which require a photographic ID, are a contentious subject in the U.S. While some people argue in favor of bringing official and easily verifiable identification on election day, others cite the lack of a uniform national ID system in the U.S. as a flaw in this proposed system, according to Statista.

Under the SAVE bill, individuals who wish to vote in federal elections will be required to provide a form of identification like a passport, a valid government-issued photo identification card that shows that the applicant’s place of birth was in the U.S., or a military identification card that has a U.S. military record of service showing the applicant’s place of birth was in the U.S.

The bill was passed amid discourse around voter fraud and non-citizen voting.

Research published by the Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 showed that across 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 general election, there were 30 incidents of suspected non-citizen voting, roughly 0.0001 percent of the 23.5 million tabulated votes.

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