Election Fraud

Does a viral video show election workers in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, commiting voter fraud in November 2022? No, that's not true: This exact video and claim were previously debunked in 2020. The election worker shown was manually transcribing damaged ballots, Delaware County officials said. No proof has emerged that the two individuals featured were not adhering to the Pennsylvania election…

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…

Do large downticks in cumulative voting graphs for the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate and governor's races prove election fraud? No, that's not true: Edison Research, which supplies election data to news organization websites, told Lead Stories that the downticks shown by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell on social media and on his Frank Speech website -- totaling tens of thousands of…

Does a video show an "Iranian whistleblower" revealing how they hacked a federal voter registration database during the U.S. 2020 election and created fraudulent overseas ballots? No, that's not true: The footage -- shown at an election integrity event in October -- includes a screen recording that the U.S. Justice Department already determined is intended to mislead people. It does…

Does a photograph of a packed street in the city of Sao Paulo show thousands of Brazilians protesting against alleged voter fraud after the country's 2022 presidential election? No, that's not true: The picture is from a 2016 protest against corruption. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 13, 2022, with the title "Brazil is Doing This Correct…

Was it suspicious that more Democrats in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, requested mail-in ballots than Democrats in Philadelphia County, even though 273,765 fewer registered Democratic voters live in Allegheny County in 2022? No, that's not true: This also happened in 2018 and 2016, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, who added, "There is no evidence of fraud."…

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…

Does a viral map claiming that identical tallies turned New York predominantly blue in the gubernatorial race with ">99%" votes allegedly counted prove election fraud? No, that's not true: Even three days after the video with the map was supposedly recorded, not a single news source showed the counted votes reaching the 99 percent benchmark. By then, the Republican candidate…

Did the U.S. Army Cyber Command find evidence that immigrants lacking permanent legal status in Colorado used fraudulent state identification cards to vote for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: The claim originated on a webpage that is known for publishing satirical, fake takes on real people and issues in U.S. news and politics. 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…