VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — At 5 p.m. on Election Day, the city of Virginia Beach had a message for the public: No one has been burning up your vote.
A concerned citizen had shared a video with the city "that ostensibly shows someone burning ballots," officials wrote in a news release.
But have no fear. Those were sample ballots, not official ones, the city said.
The video showed someone setting on fire a plastic bag full of what looked like paper ballots, according to CNN. The person didn't show their face but claimed the 80 ballots were "all for President Trump." The location was not identified but the papers stated they were from Virginia Beach.
It's unclear who is responsible for the video or where it originally emerged.
City officials said Tuesday that the ballots all lacked bar code markings that are on official ballots. Fire investigators are looking into the illegal burning, they added.
The next afternoon, however, the video and associated conspiracy picked up steam when it was tweeted out by Eric Trump, son of the president whose reelection fate is still undetermined. His tweet had more than 51,500 likes and 30,200 retweets as of Thursday.
"Burning 80 Trump Ballots," he wrote, linking to a tweet from an account that has since been suspended by the social media company. According to The Washington Post, the account was associated with the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, which purports that America is being led by pedophiles who are part of a global child sex-trafficking ring, and that President Donald Trump is secretly working to stop them.
Virginia Beach officials responded to Eric Trump in a message from the city's official Twitter account: "Those were sample ballots. Addressed this yesterday."
