Did Biden urge voters to “vote often” during debate? Fact Check

Claims that Joe Biden uttered the phrase “vote early and vote often” during the Presidential debate in Ohio is circulating on social media.

FALSE

Examples of the claim as they appeared on social media are below.

Biden urges voters to commit fraud by, “Vote early and vote OFTEN”

Biden, “if you’re going to vote, vote early and vote often”

Biden, “if you’re going to vote, vote early and vote often”
He actually told people to illegally vote multiple times.

During the 2020 presidential election, President Trump has floated a number of conspiracies regarding voter fraud, including the claim that mail-in ballots will lead to significant and widespread voter fraud. The claims above seem to be suggesting that Biden is encouraging such fraud by asking voters to vote multiple times, which is illegal in the United States.

However, Biden didn’t ask voters to “vote often”. Examining the original C-SPAN video, we could not locate any moment where Biden asked voters to vote more than once. The only moment in the debate where Biden urged voters to get out and vote came towards the end of the debate when Biden asked voters to get out and vote early if they could, but not vote “often”.

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From the full transcript of the debate –

Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election. Vote, vote, vote. If you’re able to vote early in your state, vote early. If you’re able to vote in person, vote in person.

Since the transcript or video does not mention when Biden allegedly uttered the words, and those circulating this claim to do not provide any evidence, we rank the claim that Biden urged voters to “vote often” as false.