Election Ballots

Did non-English-speaking voters cut in line to vote early in Pennsylvania? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, told Lead Stories that a video circulating online is incomplete; some elderly and disabled people were allowed to wait their turn inside. A group of voters applying for mail-in ballots needed the help of translators, and the rest of…

Does a proposed New York state constitutional amendment "grant" voting rights "to illegal aliens" and "strip parental rights" by not informing parents without the child's approval about their decision to get gender transition surgery? No, that's not true: There is no mention anywhere in the proposed amendment of giving undocumented immigrants voting rights. The proposed amendment bans discrimination against gender…

Does a video show someone in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, destroying real mail-in ballots from voters who voted for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The Bucks County Board of Elections, the Bucks County District Attorney and the Bucks County Republican Committee all confirmed the video is fake. The local GOP pointed out discrepancies in the filmed election…

Does a video show an unauthorized person being given mail-in ballots in Somerset, Massachusetts? No, that's not true: The clip shows the assistant town clerk transferring the ballots to the registrar. The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts told Lead Stories that "nothing" in the video "appears to be contrary to any state election laws or regulations."…

Did Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz break the law by helping his son vote? No, that's not true: It is not against state law for a candidate in an election to help a voter who has requested voting assistance at the polls. A representative from the Minnesota secretary of state's office told Lead Stories the restriction had been "struck from the…

Did a possible voting machine glitch in Tarrant County, Texas, on one ballot indicate widespread vote-switching? No, that's not true: Tarrant County elections administrator Clint Ludwig said he believes the one person making the claim about their vote changing from the machine to the printed ballot "did make a selection on the machine and that selection was printed on their…

Have key battleground states Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania officially announced that they will not have election results available on election night, pointing to election cheating already in the works? No, that's not true: The rules for certifying election results vary between states, and some states have rules in place that result in an anticipated delay in processing all the ballots…

Does the cancellation of 132,336 "absentee ballot" application duplicates and "418 absentee ballot applications" from dead people prove that "the steal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is already well underway"? No, that's not true: That only proves that election officials do their job ensuring proper verification of mail ballot requests, Pennsylvania Department of State's press secretary told Lead Stories. Mail…

Is Donald Trump banned from voting in Florida because of his felony conviction? No, that's not true: Florida allows felons to vote if their conviction took place in another state that has no such ban. Trump was convicted in New York state, where felons are allowed to cast their ballots if they are not in prison. Trump has yet to…

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…