Ads on Facebook with voter fraud conspiracies were running as recently as this week

• Facebook was running ads featuring voter fraud conspiracies up until Wednesday.
• The ads were paid for by Restoration Action, a conservative super PAC.
• The ads echo election fraud conspiracies that former President Trump has pushed.

As recently as this Wednesday, Facebook was running ads featuring voter fraud conspiracy language like, "Every illegal vote cancels a legitimate vote."

The ads were from the conservative super PAC Restoration Action, a group that paid Facebook over $380,000 to run ads "about social issues, elections or politics" between April 7 and May 7. The vast majority of those ads focused on Democrat-led election reform legislation that intends to expand voter registration, voting by mail, and early voting, as well as strengthen election security systems. The legislation has already successfully passed through the House, and must now pass through the Senate.

Republican leaders have repeatedly attacked the legislation, and former President Donald Trump referred to it as "a monster" during a speech in March. "It virtually eliminates voter ID requirements nationwide, effectively ends all registration deadlines - can you believe this?" he said. Many of the Facebook ads from Restoration Action echo Trump's sentiment, and at least one features him directly:

The most recent ads, though, have all been pulled by Facebook for violating advertising policies.

The most recent one, which claimed that "every illegal vote cancels a legitimate vote," violated Facebook's misinformation policy, a Facebook representative told Insider.

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Facebook pulls advertisements, "that include claims debunked by third-party fact checkers or, in certain circumstances, claims debunked by organizations with particular expertise," according to the company's ad policy. The ad in question from Restoration Action included claims about proposed election reform legislation that were false, according to a fact check cited by Facebook.

Voter fraud in the US is extremely rare, according to the database of election fraud maintained by conservative American think tank the Heritage Foundation. It's so rare, in fact, that an American is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit election fraud. Former President Trump refused to accept the results of the presidential vote for weeks after it was decided, and continues to push the false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Trump and his campaign filed dozens of lawsuits after the results of the election declared President Joe Biden the winner. None of those suits were successful.

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