Election Ballots

Was voter turnout above 100 percent in 2020 in some precincts of Henrico County, Virginia? No, that's not true: Data in a social media post inaccurately added county-level absentee ballots to precinct counts using a mathematical estimate. The county director of elections told Lead Stories that the assertion about impossible turnouts is "incorrect." Counties are not concealing precinct data by…

Did Montana leave Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris off the 2024 ballot, as social media posts claim? That lacks some context: Harris has been a registered candidate in Montana for U.S. president since August 2024, according to state records. Montana's Electronic Absentee System, which can be used by Montana-registered military and civilian voters abroad, initially omitted Harris' name from its…

Did 113 non-citizens vote in Washington, D.C., in the June 2024 primary election that included presidential primary balloting? Yes, but saying they voted in the "2024 Presidential Primary" is misleading, according to a spokesperson for the D.C. elections board who said non-citizen D.C. residents cannot cast ballots for presidential candidates. Their ballots only contained checkboxes for local offices, as is…

Does Minnesota mark voters' party affiliation on the outside of mail-in ballots? No, that's not true: Political party affiliation is not included in the state's voter registration. A spokesperson for Minnesota's secretary of state office told Lead Stories that an "R" on the envelope just indicates a "registered" absentee voter, not "Republican." The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

When he dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024, was it too late for Joe Biden's name to be removed from general election presidential ballots across the country? No, that's not true: Biden was not yet on the ballot for this election cycle, as his primary election wins only made him the presumptive nominee. The party's official candidate…

Was "Fulton County election worker, Wanda Shaye Moss" arrested on election fraud charges in June 2024? No, that's not true: The woman shown in a social media post is Wanda Geter-Pataky, who was arrested and criminally charged in connection with the misuse of absentee ballots in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She is not Wandrea ArShaye ("Shaye") Moss, the woman falsely accused of…

Is it statistically impossible that Joe Biden added 600,000 votes in Pennsylvania overnight during the 2020 election count? No, that's not true: The Pennsylvania Department of State told Lead Stories that "This claim is misinformation." Both 2020 presidential candidates, Biden and then-President Donald Trump, added hundreds of thousands of votes in the overnight hours following the closure of polls on…

Is the 2020 presidential election tally in Fulton County, Georgia invalid on account of 300,000 missing ballot images? No, that's not true: The original paper ballots still exist and it's important to understand that the ballot image is not the vote but merely an electronic picture of the ballot for review purposes. Georgia election officials recounted the vote, including counting…

Did Donald Trump announce in a Time magazine interview that "he'd force every pregnant woman to submit to constant government monitoring" to ensure they don't have an abortion? No, that's not true: The former president outlined many other plans for the next term if he is re-elected, but this specific proposition was not one he explicitly argued for in the…

Did 46 of 50 states recount their votes from the 2020 election and confirm that Joe Biden lost the vote in their state? No, that's not true: There were four states that conducted recounts or had legal challenges of the 2020 presidential election results, and none overturned the results that Biden won the presidential election against Donald Trump in 2020.…