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Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., gestures while addressing a gathering during a campaign stop, Jan. 18, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., gestures while addressing a gathering during a campaign stop, Jan. 18, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP)

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., gestures while addressing a gathering during a campaign stop, Jan. 18, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP)

Grace Abels
By Grace Abels January 26, 2024

Dean Phillips didn’t win the NH primary. He said so himself.

If Your Time is short

  • Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., got about 24,000 votes in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. President Biden got more than 79,000. 

  • President Biden did not appear on the ballot because of a disagreement between the state and national Democratic Party, but a widespread campaign was organized for Biden as a write-in candidate. 

  • There is no evidence of large-scale election fraud in the 2024 New Hampshire primary.

Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus and Joe Biden — they’re now all common write-in candidates after this year’s New Hampshire Democratic primary, which President Biden won with more than 79,000 write-in votes.

But it didn’t take long for social media accounts to allege that his win was a result of election fraud.

"SOURCE: Rep. Dean Phillips received almost twice as many votes as Biden did in the New Hampshire primary," read a Jan. 24 post on X. "The Democrat Party, in an effort not to embarrass the president, 'found' 50,000+ write in votes for Biden to give him the 'win'." 

A day later, the post had been reshared by X users 7,100 times and viewed more than 4 million times.

The unsubstantiated claim was first shared by the popular X account @amuse. With its stormtrooper profile pic and almost 300,000 followers, the account claims to support "independent journalists" and deliver "conservative takes on liberal talking points." 

The account owner also writes "Politique Republic," a Substack blog; the author description reads "a political dissident, pundit, author, and artist." 

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(Screenshot of X post)

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who announced his candidacy in October 2023, did not get more votes than Joe Biden nor win the primary election. Results posted on the New Hampshire secretary of state’s website as of Jan. 26 show that Phillips received about 24,000 votes while President Biden got over 79,000. 

A few hours after the account shared its unsourced claim, Phillips himself debunked it. "This is shameful and absolutely untrue," wrote Phillips on X. "The State of New Hampshire manages its elections with great integrity and efficiency, and Joe Biden won the NH Democratic primary election last evening fair and square."


(Screenshot of X post)

New Hampshire’s secretary of state, Republican David Scanlan, administers Granite State elections. Political parties are allowed observers in polling places, but those observers do not count ballots, said Bradford E. Cook, attorney and chairman of the state’s Ballot Law Commission, a bipartisan body established by the Legislature. Election officials and volunteers count votes and relay results to the secretary of state.

Separately, New Hampshire’s attorney general sends observers to polling places "to observe and assure the vote is being done according to law." Cook said.

Anna Sventek, Scanlan’s communications director, confirmed that the results reported on the website were "the accurate results of the election." 

Featured Fact-check

Amuse’s claim mimics other false claims that large numbers of votes were "found" in the 2020 election.

Why Biden wasn’t on the ballot

The New Hampshire Democratic primary was unique this year because the presumptive nominee, Biden, did not appear on the ballot. This was because of a disagreement between the state and national party after the Democratic National Committee reordered the primary schedule to make South Carolina the first primary state instead of New Hampshire.

New Hampshire state law dictates that its primary must be first in the nation, so the state went ahead with its Jan. 23 primary, despite the DNC’s change. As a result, no Democratic delegates from the state will be awarded at the convention later this year.

Because of the change, Biden did not campaign in New Hampshire, leading his supporters to organize a write-in campaign on his behalf. 

Write-in votes can take longer to be reported because they must be hand-counted. Many precincts prepared for the large number of write-in ballots from Biden supporters.

Because of this, the secretary of state and attorney general said in January that "to the extent that counting the write-in votes takes longer than expected, the moderator may release the Republican results earlier than the Democratic results provided the results are complete."

Votes were not found, said Cook, "but added to the total as they were reported to the secretary of state."

Our ruling

An X post claimed Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., received twice as many votes as Joe Biden in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. But official results from the secretary of state show President Joe Biden won the election with a large number of write-in votes.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Our Sources

Email interview with Anna Sventek, Communication Director for the New Hampshire Secretary of State, Jan. 25, 2024

Email interview with Bradford E. Cook, attorney and chairman of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission, Jan. 25, 2024

Email interview with Emma Steiner, Information Accountability Project Manager at Common Cause, Jan. 25, 2024

The Associated Press, "New Hampshire presidential primary results," accessed Jan. 25, 2024

The New York Times, "New Hampshire Democratic Primary Election Results 2024," accessed Jan. 25, 2024

NBC News, Inside the 'weird' write-in campaign needed to help Biden win New Hampshire," Jan. 16, 2024

X post (archived), Jan. 24, 2024

X profile (archived), accessed Jan.25, 2024

X post, (archived), Jan. 24, 2024

X post (archived), Jan. 25, 2024

X post (archived). Jan. 25, 2024 

Substack, "Politique Republic," accessed Jan. 25, 2024

Substack, "Politique Republic - About," accessed Jan. 25, 2024

X post (archived), Jan.25, 2024

The Associated Press, "Rep. Dean Phillips announces primary challenge to Biden. He says Democrats need to focus on future," Oct. 27, 2023

New Hampshire Secretary of State, "2024 Democratic Presidential Primary Election Results," accessed Jan. 25, 2024

PolitiFact, "Election workers didn’t ‘find’ Biden votes overnight. They counted and reported mail in ballots," Nov. 10, 2020

PolitiFact, "Dane County 'fake votes' claim is ridiculous, based on lack of elections knowledge," Nov. 30, 2020

PBS NewsHour, "Biden will not be on the New Hampshire primary ballot. What does that mean for voters?," Oct. 30, 2023

The Associated Press, "This is why zero delegates are at stake when Democrats vote in New Hampshire," Jan. 17, 2024

Justia, "New Hampshire Revised Statutes Section 653:9 (2022) - Presidential Primary Election," 2022

WMUR, "NH officials say ballot counting went smoothly during primary," Jan. 24, 2024

WBUR, "Bracing for a wave of write-ins and other potential curveballs, N.H. poll workers prep for primary day," Jan.16, 2024

Boston Globe, "N.H. election officials ready for primary, some with extra volunteers to hand count statewide write-in votes," Jan. 22, 2024

USA Today, "Will the results of the New Hampshire primary be delayed? What to know," Jan. 18, 2024

CBS News, "Why Biden wasn't on the 2024 New Hampshire primary ballot," Jan. 24, 2024

USA Today, "Why is New Hampshire the first in the nation primary state? Here's a closer look," Jan. 22, 2024

PolitiFact, "Does the New Hampshire primary have a future? Impressions from PolitiFact’s reporting on the ground," Jan. 20, 2024

New Hampshire Secretary of State, "Joint Memorandum," Jan. 12, 2024 

 

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Dean Phillips didn’t win the NH primary. He said so himself.

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