Fact check: False claim that armed Black Panthers patrolled voting sites during Georgia runoff
The claim: Armed Black Panthers were at voting locations during the Georgia runoff
Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Herschel Walker in the Dec. 6 Georgia Senate run-off race. Some social media users claim armed men from the New Black Panther Party, a Black nationalist group, were present at the polls that day.
A Dec. 6 Facebook post (direct link, archived link) shows an image of men dressed in black attire holding rifles.
"Armed to the teeth Black Panthers are everywhere in Geogia (sic) today, intimidating voters," reads text above the picture. "If the right did something this stupid, the DOJ would have ordered the FBI to arrest them all because this is clearly in violation of both Federal and state law. But no, not a peep out of the left."
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The post generated over 300 shares in less than a week. A tweet with a similar claim from former Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler generated over 15,000 likes.
But there's no evidence to support this claim.
The picture shown in the Facebook post is from 2020, not the December runoff. And both the Black Panthers and an array of county officials told Paste BN there were no armed group members present for the latest election.
Paste BN reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.
No reports of armed Black Panthers at voting sites
The Black Lawyers for Justice shared a press release on Dec. 5 that said the New Black Panther Party “will conduct active lawful, defense and security patrols at the most sensitive polling sites in Georgia to ensure Black mothers are able to make their vote choice" during the runoff.
But Ahmad Muhammad, the party's spokesperson, told PolitiFact that they decided against carrying firearms because they “didn’t want to deter voters.”
Members of the Black Panther Party were present at voting sites in the Georgia cities of Savannah, Brunswick and Valdosta, but none were armed as the post claims, Muhammad told Paste BN.
Multiple county officials in Georgia also told Paste BN they had no reports of armed Black Panther members on Dec. 6 as claimed in the post.
There were no reports of armed Black Panthers at voting sites in Chatham County, Caity Hamilton, administrative assistant at the Chatham County Board of Elections, told Paste BN in an email.
Christopher Channell, director of elections and registration for Glynn County, also told Paste BN in an email that no poll managers or the sheriff's department were aware of any armed Black Panther activity at voting sites in the county.
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And Zachary Manifold, elections supervisor at the Gwinnett County Board of Voter Registrations and Elections, likewise said there were no reports of armed Black Panther Party members on Dec. 6.
The image in the post is also unrelated to the Dec. 6 runoff. It is associated with July 2020 protests in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Hamilton said. This photo appeared in multiple online news articles in 2020.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that armed Black Panthers were patrolling voting locations during the Georgia runoff. A Black Panther spokesperson and multiple county officials in Georgia said no armed Black Panthers were at any voting centers on Dec. 6. The image in the post also dates back to 2020.
Our fact-check sources:
- PolitiFact, Dec. 8, No evidence of armed patrols at Georgia voting sites
- Ahmad Muhammad, Dec. 13-15, Phone interview with Paste BN
- Caity Hamilton, Dec. 9, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Christopher Cannell, Dec. 9, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Zach Manifold, Dec. 9, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Paste BN, Dec. 6, Georgia 2022 Senate runoff recap: Warnock wins election, boosting Democratic majority
- Britannica, accessed Dec. 16, Black Panther Party
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