REFUTALS
The Spanish government is using social media as well as its control over TV, radio and print/online publications in order to spread misinformation and plain lies about the Catalan process of independence. For many months they have curated the Spanish media, and they have recently taken over the Catalan public TV and radio broadcasters (TV3 and Ràdio Catalunya).
I find myself refuting these subjects again and again on Twitter or Facebook. It is already taking too much of my time, so I'm posting these refutals here so in the future I just have to present the link to this page instead of engaging in yet another endless discussion.
Feel free to link here if you find yourself in the same situation during a discussion online.
CLAIM
The ballot boxes contained votes before starting
DISCUSSION
The claim is false.
It all started with the video below. Volunteers carry the ballots and ballot boxes inside plastic bags towards the polling place. The ground is wet, and one of the volunteers slips and the bag falls open to the floor, spilling lots of ballots. Several people help pick up everything and then they continue.
Once the video appeared on social networks, some Spanish politicians start spreading the rumor that the ballots that fell from the box are already marked with a YES, and the rumor starts spreading on online news media and social networks.
Yes, the boxes are full of ballots, but these are stacks of clean, new, unused ballots. Despite the bad quality of the video it is possible to appreciate that the ballots fall in more or less ordered stacks, with nothing written on them, and aren’t folded:
The video above is not the only source that shows the ballots arriving inside the ballot boxes arriving in the polling places. In other photos and videos from different locations show the volunteers arriving with the new ballots clearly visible inside the box.
There are many other photos of the ballot boxes being opened. In some locations the ballots were cast inside envelopes, and in other locations they were simply folded in two. In either case it’s easy to see that they wouldn’t fall to the ground in clean, well-ordered stacks of paper.
