Stopped Counting

Was there ballot cheating during a bomb threat search when the vote-counting livestream went offline in Orange County, California, in November 2024? No, that's not true: The Orange County registrar of voters told Lead Stories that "the ballots always remained secure under the custody of the Sheriff's Department." There's also no evidence of fraud at any time during the ballot-counting…

Did an issue with Michigan's Qualified Voter File database ever involve 168,000 (or any) duplicate or fake ballots? No, that's not true: Michigan's Department of State told Lead Stories that the Qualified Voter File allows only one ballot per voter per election. A spokesperson said, "There were no fake or duplicate ballots." The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

by: Ed Payne and Alexis Tereszcuk Does a 32-page report shared online in January of 2023 provide proof of widespread 2020 election fraud in five swing states? No, that's not true: The report lacks credible nonpartisan documentation or verifiable data that would substantiate such a sweeping assertion. It promotes a repeatedly disproven assertion that "hundreds of thousands of votes were…

Do U.S. student loans cost the government over $60 billion more to service than those loans bring in during the year? No, that's not true: According to experts, the cost of servicing student loans is a much smaller figure than $60 billion, which means it could not result in a $60 billion difference compared to how much those loans bring…

Was 2010 census data used to cast fraudulent votes of dead voters and those who had changed addresses in a nationwide hack of the 2020 election? No, that's not true. By law, 2010 census data at the individual name level will not be available until 2082, and the U.S. Census Bureau and cybersecurity agencies say there has been no data…

Does Michael Flynn's interview with Alex Jones include only factual statements about the 2020 election? No, that's not true: The interview repeats disproven allegations of foreign interference, that thousands of dead people voted in Pennsylvania and that Donald Trump won up to 400 Electoral College votes. All are demonstrably false. Flynn's interview (archived here) with Jones -- a well-known conspiracy…

Does an advertising video titled "The Plot To Steal America" contain hard evidence of election fraud? No, that's not true: the 18-minute pitch contains allegations based on video clips purporting to show "evidence" but several of these clips do not actually show what is being claimed. The announcer repeats 11 already-debunked claims in the opening five minutes, then tells viewers…

Did a "pipe break" on Election Day force evacuation of the Fulton County, Georgia, vote-counting center at the same time that "totes full of ballots" were "dumped"? No, that's not true. A pipe leak in Atlanta's State Farm Arena happened "around 6 a.m." on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and delayed the start of absentee ballot counting for about two hours,…

Does a nine-point list of election "peculiarities" contain only true statements? No, it doesn't: The list relies on falsehoods and unproven theories. Chief among them are claims that swing states stopped counting ballots on election night, that record numbers of dead people voted and that low absentee ballot rejection rates suggest something nefarious is afoot. None is true, election officials…

Did Michigan add 138,000 votes and none of them were for Trump and was there a 4 a.m. ballot dump in Wisconsin? No, that's not true. Lead Stories and other news outlets have debunked similar claims by showing records of a Michigan clerical error that got exaggerated. Wisconsin officials said vote-counting records do not show a "ballot dump," only updates…