Election Fraud

Do social media reactions to video showing Republicans putting ballots in a brown paper bag during the Iowa Caucus correctly assume an absence of election integrity measures at the caucus? No, that is not true: Kelley Koch, the Republican chair of Dallas County, where the votes in the video were being tallied, told Lead Stories the ballots are preprinted with…

by: Ed Payne and Alexis Tereszcuk Does a 32-page report shared online in January of 2023 provide proof of widespread 2020 election fraud in five swing states? No, that's not true: The report lacks credible nonpartisan documentation or verifiable data that would substantiate such a sweeping assertion. It promotes a repeatedly disproven assertion that "hundreds of thousands of votes were…

Did Fulton County, Georgia, count 20,713 votes that did not exist in the 2020 election and that there are "no records" for, such as poll tapes? No, that's not true: An election-watchdog expert said that claiming votes are missing because of missing poll tapes is "like telling me my house doesn't exist unless I can find all the bank documents."…

Did the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps place Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Dr. Karen Hacker under arrest for committing "treason, abuse of office, and defrauding the country"? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer and representatives of the CDC told Lead Stories that this claim is false. The website where this claim was made publishes…

Did 17,327 dead people vote in Michigan in the 2020 presidential election? No, that's not true: The Michigan Office of the Auditor General released an audit in March 2022 that found 1,616 votes cast by electors who died prior to election day in the 2020 general election were tallied. No voter fraud was determined to have occurred by the audit,…

Did former president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump publish a social media post that confused President Joe Biden with former president Barack Obama in the 2024 election? No, that's not true: A screenshot that claims to show such a post cannot be found on Trump's Truth Social account page. The alleged post is likely a parody of previous statements…

Is it true that there will be no way to opt out of the FEMA and FCC Nationwide Emergency Alert Test on October 4, 2023? No, that's not true: If a person does not want to receive the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) portion of the test, they need only to turn their phone off at approximately 10:20 a.m. Alaska Time…

Did the Arizona Senate bring indictments against Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Runbeck Election Services, banks and local police for election fraud and other crimes? No, that's not true: The Arizona Senate is not authorized to issue indictments, the state Senate GOP spokesperson told Lead Stories. The video shown in the social-media post that made the claim…

Were 7 million people registered to vote in the 2020 general election in Wisconsin when only 4.5 million were eligible voters? No, that's not true: There were more than 3.9 million registered voters and an estimated 4.5 million eligible voters in that election, a Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) representative told Lead Stories. A version of the claim made by former…

Do 222 contributions with "zero donor information" to the campaign of Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis prove there was fraud? No, that's not true: An Emory University political science professor emeritus told Lead Stories, "Looks like they're all very small donations for which donor info is not required under Georgia law." Other political scientists said the same. The…