No, Montana has not removed Kamala Harris from the ballot. Election officials explain

After rumors and allegations circulated online over the weekend, Montana state election officials confirmed that they had not removed Vice President Kamala Harris from the general election ballot.

Voting by mail for overseas voters and military members began Friday. Shortly after Montana's electronic absentee voting system went live at 8 a.m., the Secretary of State's office received a report that the ballot was not displaying correctly. It took the system offline to fix the problem and had it fixed by Friday afternoon, the office said in a statement Monday.

Other ballots were not affected, the SOS office said.

“Contrary to the outrageous disinformation campaigns circulating online, the Montana Secretary of State's office has certified all qualified candidates for the 2024 election,” the press release said, pointing to the list of candidates that includes Harris. “As always, voters should rely on Montana's trusted sources for credible election information, including the Secretary of State's office and the state's 56 county election offices.”

A spokesman said the potentially affected voter had been contacted and no further action was required.

More: Panic buttons, Kevlar vests and bulletproof glass: Security for election workers is getting serious

Unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud also apply to the 2024 elections

Donald Trump's continued refusal to accept his defeat in the 2020 election contributed to growing concerns about widespread voter fraud that has been repeatedly debunked. Trump and his allies attempted to take legal action to challenge the election results in more than 60 cases, and all but one was dismissed.

Some people, moved by Trump's false claims of election fraud, resorted to violence when a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of the election results. More than 1,000 people have been criminally charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol.

Despite the debunked allegations of election fraud, recent polls from the World Justice Project show that nearly half of Republicans and about a quarter of Democrats said they would not accept the election results if their candidate lost.

A spring survey by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice found that more than a third of election officials face harassment or abuse, and seven in 10 officials say threats have increased since 2020.

Contributor: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris was not disqualified from Montana general election