Voting Rights

Is there proof of law enforcement raids on multiple Arizona nonprofit organizations in a "2000 Mules"-driven ballot trafficking investigation? No, there's no evidence that's true: Reporting by The Arizona Republic puts two uniformed officers and two plainclothes investigators from the Arizona attorney general's office at the office of just one nonprofit: Comité de Bien Estar in San Luis in May…

Does joining The Satanic Temple give a member legal protection to terminate a pregnancy? Not necessarily: According to legal experts, it could -- but joining "opportunistically" probably won't be applicable. Or as Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law emeritus at Harvard Law School, wrote in an email to Lead Stories on May 4, 2022, such a claim…

Is the relatively high number of registrations on November 2 and November 3, 2020, evidence of voter fraud in Michigan? No, that's not true: On Election Day alone, close to 32,000 people registered to vote in Michigan, according to officials. A spokeswoman for the Michigan secretary of state told Lead Stories that the registrations were legal and due to the…

Do eight families make up a "Federal Reserve Cartel" and own the BIS (Bank for International Settlements), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank? No, that's not true: These three institutions are not privately owned and are run by international governments, not eight of the wealthiest families in the world. Jewish control of major banks and financial institutions is…

Did White House press secretary Jen Psaki imply that the Biden administration was interested in suppressing people's ability to "exercise their fundamental rights"? No, that's not true: When Psaki said the administration was "looking at efforts across the country to prevent people from being able to exercise their fundamental rights," an instagram video took that out of context to suggest…

Do 22 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, receive public benefits and vote illegally? No, that's mostly false: Two experts in public policy told Lead Stories that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is closer to 11 million. Because they are not citizens, they cannot qualify for most public benefits and cannot vote in most…

Does the U.S. Constitution only grant men and women the right to vote? No, that's not true: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution says, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." That protects the voting rights of citizens of…

Do U.S. citizens pay a percentage of their taxes to the queen of England via the IRS, and is the IRS not part of the federal government? No, that's not true: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. To avoid double taxation…

Summary: Mike Lindell's video series allegedly proving fraud in the November 2020 elections relies heavily on digital evidence in the form of files and animations that Lindell claims show attacks on the U.S. election infrastructure coming from China and other places. Lindell has never acknowledged where these files and animations came from. Lead Stories traced them back to a website…

Does Burger King Corporation require its patrons to provide identification verifying a shared address in order to dine in at the same table? No, that's not true: While the Canadian province Manitoba implemented such a COVID-19 policy for restaurants, that is not a Burger King corporate policy. The claim appeared in several social media posts, including a Facebook post (archived…