Election

Does an image of a Russian passport shared on social media in spring 2022 prove that Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy is a secret Russian citizen? No, that's not true. Analysis of similar images shows that forged passport scans are easy to create with free software if one has a passport-style photograph of a person. Zelenskyy's image in the social media…

Did the police chief for Uvalde, Texas, Consolidated Independent School District, make political contributions to President Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke, candidate for governor of Texas in 2022 and a former U.S. representative for the state? Not that Lead Stories could find: Although individuals with the name "Pedro Arredondo" and the name "Peter Arredondo" donated to Democratic causes, none of…

Has a political action committee proved that Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert had two abortions and worked as an unlicensed escort? No, as of June 19, 2022, the allegations about the anti-abortion Republican congresswoman, made in a press release from the American Muckrakers political action committee, include no independent verification or documentation. The allegations are corroborated only by what the PAC…

Was John F. Kennedy Jr., preparing to make an announcement about his candidacy for U.S. senator of New York right before his death? No, that's not true: Although reports have suggested that Kennedy was considering running for the Senate seat, there was no indication that, before his death in July 1999, he was about to announce his candidacy. Consequently, the…

Are you six times more like to be killed by a doctor than a gun in the United States? We don't know. The estimates are too scattered to form a conclusion. Official mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are typically based on the underlying cause of death as "reported and certified on death certificates by…

Did the U.S. military arrest members of Congress at the White House? No, that's not true: This did not happen, and the video making the claim seemingly used the title for clickbait. The claim appeared in a video posted to Facebook published on June 9, 2022. The title of the video is: 𝐔𝐒𝐀 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒…

Is geotracking the only evidence being used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to place January 6, 2021, defendants inside the U.S. Capitol? No, that's not true: FBI investigators and the DOJ are using the tracking data, along with Wi-Fi access points, Bluetooth beacons that interacted with phones and security cameras to confirm people were inside the building during the…

Was Dominion voting machine "manipulation" responsible for 2022 primary election problems In DeKalb County, Georgia? No, that's not true: The Georgia secretary of state's office says it was a mistake in programming the machines for a single countywide seat on the Democratic side of the ticket, not in the machines themselves. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published…

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…

Were 19,000 late, invalid ballots counted in the 2020 Arizona election? No, that's not true: An article making the claim relies on a report that appears to misconstrue what a particular type of receipt shows. It's a record of when election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, gave early ballot envelopes to a vendor to be scanned, not a receipt of…