Elon Musk Spreads False Claim About Oregon Voters as Report Shows His Election Posts Hit 2 Billion Views

By Diane Megaw On Jan 15, 2026

Claims by Elon Musk, the owner of X- formerly known as Twitter, that Oregon has “ä lot of fake voters” in response to several social media posts are fake news.

Elon Musk’s claims of “Fake Voters” in Oregon Are Neither Fact Checked Nor True

On Monday, Musk responded to various misleading posts, falsely suggesting voter fraud in Oregon, a blue state in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump. The Tesla founder’s claim is fake news. Still, it spreads to millions globally through his X platform, despite being a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of Oregon’s voter rolls.

Of Oregon’s 4.2 million or so residents, 800,000 voters listed in the state’s voter database aren’t eligible to vote until they provide new proof they may vote, usually because their addresses still need to be updated. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read confirmed that the state has an additional 800,000 inactive voters on its rolls and said some or many of them should be removed.

Tidings Context

In Oregon, a registration can be marked inactive when election mail is returned undeliverable. Inactive voters do not receive ballots unless they update their registration or respond to a confirmation notice.

But these approximately 25% of voters aren’t fake and don’t receive ballots, so they can’t vote because they are registered in the system as “inactive.”

Tidings Data Snapshot

Oregon voter roll reality check

3M+

Active voters in Oregon

~800k

Inactive voter records on file

Ballots sent to inactive records

160k

Inactive records slated for cancellation under new directives

~640k

Inactive records expected to remain after the first cleanup

Source: Oregon Secretary of State press release on active vs inactive voters and 2026 voter roll cleanup directives
Dailytidings.com

Yet Musk responded to the Twitter account under the name “Upstate Federalist” on Monday, saying, “That’s a lot of fake voters…” This is factually incorrect.

Of its roughly 3.4 million voting-age adults, Oregon currently has 3 million active registered voters. The high registration is in part due to the state’s automatic voter registration for anyone who obtains or renews a state ID or driver’s license at the DMV and shows proof of citizenship.

Tidings Context

Oregon’s Motor Voter law automatically registers eligible citizens when they get or renew an Oregon driver’s license or ID. People can opt out or update their party and address using My Vote.

False Or Misleading Election Posts By Musk Garnered +2 Billion Views In 2024

A report from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) indicates that Elon Musk’s posts amassed 17.1 billion views since he endorsed Donald Trump in July, and false or misleading USUS election claims posted or amplified by the owner of “X” garnered over 2 billion views in 2024 on his platform.

The research found that Elon Musk’s political posts on X amassed more views than all US political campaign ads in X’s disclosure dataset. The CCDH said that at least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the USUS elections, even though fact-checkers have rated posts that amassed over 2 billion views as false or misleading.

None of Musk’s controversial posts included a Community Note, a measure intended to prevent the spread of fake news.