Arizona Election

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…

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…

Does GPS data from voters' cellphones help election fraudsters identify those who were registered but did not vote so the fraudsters can cast illegal ballots in the name of those people? Should voters avoid bringing cellphones to polling places on Election Day for this reason? No, that's not true: Election workers most commonly rely on voters' signatures to verify absentee…

Did a Yuma County, Arizona, woman plead guilty to a role in a sophisticated ballot trafficking ring that supposedly stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump? No, that's not true: Guillermina Fuentes did plead guilty on June 2, 2022, to "one count of Ballot Abuse, a Class 6 Felony, for her role in an August 2020 Primary Election 'ballot…

Were 19,000 late, invalid ballots counted in the 2020 Arizona election? No, that's not true: An article making the claim relies on a report that appears to misconstrue what a particular type of receipt shows. It's a record of when election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, gave early ballot envelopes to a vendor to be scanned, not a receipt of…

Did the military arrest the current White House deputy chief of staff, Jennifer Brigid O'Malley Dillon? No, that's not true: Lead Stories received an email from a duty officer at the Pentagon who told us the claim was not true. The claim was published by Real Raw News, a site known for writing false claims about public figures. Real Raw…

Is there proof of law enforcement raids on multiple Arizona nonprofit organizations in a "2000 Mules"-driven ballot trafficking investigation? No, there's no evidence that's true: Reporting by The Arizona Republic puts two uniformed officers and two plainclothes investigators from the Arizona attorney general's office at the office of just one nonprofit: Comité de Bien Estar in San Luis in May…

Does the movie "2000 Mules" prove the 2020 presidential election was stolen by voter fraud? No, that's not true: The film's producers promote a theory that 2,000 people in five key swing states collected and delivered hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots on behalf of a "cartel" to throw the election in favor of Joe Biden. The cellphone geotracking data…

Is the number of registered voters greater than the voting-age population in Sells, Arizona? No, that's not true: The Pima County Recorder's Office told Lead Stories that the total number of registered voters in the district of Sells is 1,197, which is less than the voting-age population. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) published by "Liz Harrington" on…