Did a poll worker in Dane County, Wisconsin get caught rigging ballots on live television? No, that's not true: The Dane County Clerk, whose office records election information, explained that this poll worker was doing routine work, preparing ballots to pass out to voters. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on November 8, 2022, with the caption "Rigging ballots…

Did the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) admit in a series of email exchanges that COVID-19 is man-made and that COVID vaccines were created with computer-generated DNA? No, that's not true: The MHRA told Lead Stories that the correspondence cited in a claim did take place, but the assertions made from those emails aren't correct. The claim…

Do midterm election graphs of unofficial, private election tallies used by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell on social media and on his Frank Speech website prove 2022 elections were stolen? No, that's not true: Spikes in the vote counts are a normal part of clean elections. A Lindell ally said he scraped and graphed data that Edison Research supplies to…

Will Michigan Proposal 2 give "violent felons" the right to vote from prison? No, that's not true: The proposal, which was on the state's ballot and passed during the 2022 midterm election, does not affect imprisoned people's ability to vote. Rather, it amends Michigan's Constitution to add various voting rights that are unrelated to prisoners. The claim appeared in a…

Was a baby found wandering alone behind someone's home without a parent or guardian, and did she say her mother's name is Wendy? No, that's not true: The child, who was only about 10 months old in the photos, was found at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on August 21, 2022, with a woman "in crisis" who was not her…

Did U.S. Special Forces arrest Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel to charge him "on many counts of murder" for deaths caused by Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: This claim is made on a website that publishes false claims and identifies itself as a satirical website. No official news sources support this claim. U.S. Special Forces also do not have…

Were influenza deaths mislabeled as COVID-19 deaths in 2020 to inflate the toll of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? No, that's not true: Registered deaths attributed to COVID were categorized separately from influenza and pneumonia by national and international surveillance programs. The claim originated in a tweet posted in April 2, 2022, that suggested deaths attributed to COVID were actually caused by…

Did President Joe Biden's term start immediately after the 2020 election was called, thus influencing Donald Trump's decision to announce a second presidential bid for 2024? No, that's not true: Biden was not formally sworn into office until the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2021, as the Constitution mandates. The 2020 presidential election was certified on January 7, 2021, after…

Did Fulton County, Georgia, election officials fire a mother and son hired as poll workers because the mom posted a tweet on the morning of the election saying she was "working at the polls to ensure a free and fair election?" No, that's not true: Laura Kronen and her son were sent home from the Johns Creek, Georgia, polling station…

Does a social media video demonstrate how to cast a fraudulent vote online in Washington state's King County, home to the greater Seattle area? No, that's not true: The county has an online system that allows voters to mark their ballots, but it doesn't record votes, a county spokesperson told Lead Stories. Ballots must still be printed, signed and returned…

Did a Pennsylvania judge's ruling allow mail-in ballots to be accepted and counted up until November 14, 2022? No, that's not true: According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, mail-in ballots must be received by the voter's respective county election office by November 8, 2022, at 8 p.m. EST. The tweet was originally posted on November 8, 2022, but later…

Are Dominion voting machines in Pennsylvania "rigged for election theft," depending on whether a voter uses a Sharpie, pen or pencil? No, that's not true: The claims are not backed by any evidence and are unsubstantiated. Both Dominion and the Pennsylvania Department of State say the voting systems are designed to work with various writing implements that may be used…

Does Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez currently have a "$29,000,000" net worth? No, that's not true: Her most recent and publicly available financial disclosure report revealed that her assets are much less than a million dollars. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 6, 2022. The text in the meme post, above an image of Ocasio-Cortez, reads: #AOC was $8k…

Does having Wi-Fi networks available at polling places mean voting machines are connected to the internet? No, that's not true: An expert told Lead Stories that assuming that the existence of a Wi-Fi network means that nearby voting machines are connected to it is incorrect. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 8, 2022. It opened: 👍 ATTENTION…

Did 16 million registered voters in New Mexico "drop overnight," within a 24-hour window before Election Day? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the New Mexico secretary of state's office, which helps administer elections, confirmed that the secretary of state's website had shown mock data while undergoing testing before the November 8 vote. A notice on the website, however,…

Did the Federal Reserve put up "walls" outside its building, possibly in anticipation of unrest? No, that's not true: The Federal Reserve is planning to renovate and expand two of its buildings in Washington, D.C. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) on November 6, 2022. The tweet reads: The Federal Reserve Just Put Up Walls ... Everything is…

Did a Finnish report expose "massive pandemic data fraud" and show that 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths were fabricated? No, that's not true: The article cited in the social media post provides no data to support its claim. In addition, the Finnish health official quoted extensively in the article told Lead Stories that the conclusions drawn were false. "There is…

Did The Independent, an online British daily newspaper, publish an article by reporter Graeme Massie with the headline, "Elon Musk's father paid college $125,000 to ignore animal abuse claims"? No, that's not true: The Independent never published an article that said this. The screenshots posted on social media that make this claim are fabricated. A tweet with two fake screenshots…

Was the fact that Maricopa County, Arizona, experienced trouble with some of its tabulators early on Election Day proof of voter fraud? No, that's not true: There was a back-up plan in place to make sure every vote was counted. In the case of a problem with a precinct tabulator, a voter could place his or her ballot in a…

Did billionaire philanthropist George Soros fund the purchase of voting machines in order to rig the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: Elections are funded by taxpayer dollars and Soros has no connections to voting machine or voting software companies. The claim appeared in a November 6, 2022, Instagram post that uses a long string of hashtags for a…