Arizona Fraud

Did Maricopa County, Arizona ballots make a stop with no observers at "Runbeck Printing Company" to be sorted before they were sent to the county for counting? No, that's not true: The claim was made without direct evidence. Maricopa County's spokesperson said bipartisan teams of election workers took sealed envelope packets to Runbeck Election Services, where envelope signatures are scanned…

Was a Phoenix affiliate of Fox News part of an attempt to defraud voters by calling the Arizona governor's race 12 days before Election Day? No, that's not true: While the affiliate, Fox 10 Phoenix, did accidentally air a graphic in late October that showed Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs defeating Republican candidate Kari Lake by six points, the station acknowledged…

Did garbage collectors "from L.A. County California, to Chavez County New Mexico," find "thousands of midterm ballots" in the trash before the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: The photos used in this claim are from news articles from 2020. Both photos indicated that U.S. postal mail had been diverted from its standard route, but neither photo was from…

Did a Republican poll watcher in Arizona have access to voter check-in information where she claims to have seen evidence that 200 extra ballots were counted? No, that's not true: The Maricopa County Elections Department told Lead Stories that "[p]olitical [p]arty observers do not have access to voter check-in data," plus "there are processes in place every election to reconcile…

Is Seattle billionaire Bill Gates now chairman of the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors? No, that's not true: A representative for Maricopa County told Lead Stories that a different Bill Gates serves Maricopa County. Gates the billionaire and villain of many conspiracy theories, is a longtime resident of Seattle, where the company he co-founded, Microsoft, is headquartered. The claim…

Were Dominion Voting System tabulators the machines that caused problems in Maricopa County, Arizona on Election Day, November 8, 2022? No, that's not true: "Runbeck is our printer vendor," Maricopa County Elections Department Communications Director Megan Gilberston told Lead Stories. "It was not the Dominion Voting System tabulators." Runbeck Election Services, Inc.'s spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories that it had…

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…

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…