Voting

Could a man who claimed in a viral video that he had a stack of unclaimed ballots mailed to voters who had moved use them to vote for Spencer Pratt for mayor of Los Angeles as he claimed? No, that's not true: The ballots appeared to be for a precinct in West Hollywood, which is a separate city from Los…

Does a real photo show the golden Trump statue at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami covered in toilet paper and trash? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the statue was vandalized, and no credible news reports confirm that it happened. The image appears to be an alteration of a photograph that first appeared in the…

Did the United States have an election with 133 million registered voters in which 159 million votes were cast? No, that's not true: Official government figures for national elections do not support that claim. More than 158 million Americans cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election, but more than 168 million were registered to vote. The claim appeared in a…

Did Donald Trump really post a video on Truth Social featuring the faces of Michelle and Barack Obama superimposed on the bodies of apes? Yes, that is true: Shortly before midnight on Feb. 5, 2026 Donald Trump posted a 1-minute, 2-second video from the PatriotNewsOutlet.com. The video promoted a debunked conspiracy claim about voting machines during the 2020 election. The…

Are 315,000 unsigned early votes in Fulton County, Georgia proof of electoral fraud? No, that's not true: The Georgia secretary of state told Lead Stories that the missing signatures on tabulator results were the consequence of a clerical error and did not invalidate legally cast votes. An election expert told Lead Stories that the minor administrative error did not affect…

Has Tina Peters been "fully pardoned" by Donald Trump, wiping out her prison sentence for giving unauthorized access to Mesa County, Colorado, voting machines in 2021, when she was county clerk? No, that's not true: Trump's "pardon" of Peters is only symbolic, not official. The U.S. Constitution grants the President power to pardon only those criminals facing federal charges. Peters,…

Did an exit poll show that 92% of California voters thought Proposition 50 was a ballot measure to impeach President Trump? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a post on a satiric X account on which the original poster of the 92% claim repeatedly made it clear he was being sarcastic. There is no publicly available exit poll…

Is the repeated appearance of a candidate's name on election ballots in the 2025 New York City mayoral election against the rules? No, that's not true: New York City Board of Elections staff told Lead Stories that those candidates are the nominees of two political parties. That can legally include running as the nominee of two officially recognized parties or…

Did a video of a social media user claiming to be about to cast a ballot for Zohran Mamdani "six or seven times" in the 2025 New York City mayoral election capture a self-incriminating admission of voter fraud? No, that's not true: The clip was part of a viral trend in which people would post videos of themselves saying "six…

Did the Russian cities of Vyborg, Petrozavodsk, and Murmansk decide with an overwhelming majority vote to leave Russia and join Finland? No, that's not true: This fictional multipart story is illustrated with an AI-generated image of "unidentified militants" and a fictional map of "Greater Finland". The fake news narrative is a twist on an idea from the early 1900s regarding…