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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Elections & voting fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about elections & voting. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,413 published reviews in this topic

המשרוקיתElections & voting

בתוצאות הבחירות לא היה להם (לגוש נתניהו) רוב

Publisher’s rating: לא נכון ברובו

The claim concerns Boaz Toporovsky’s assertion that the Netanyahu bloc lacked a majority “in the election results,” despite having a parliamentary majority. The review distinguishes the number of seats won from the number of votes received. In the Knesset’s 25th election, the parties supporting Netanyahu won 64 seats, while the opposing bloc won 56. Looking at votes rather than seats made the contest much closer, but did not reverse the result: among lists receiving more than 1% of valid votes, the Netanyahu bloc received 2,361,739 votes and the opposing bloc 2,331,788—a lead of 29,951 votes for Netanyahu’s bloc. The review also tested whether smaller lists could change that comparison. It calculated that the prominent small lists it identified received 53,215 votes in total; a tie would require about 78.14% of those votes to go to the anti-Netanyahu bloc, with the rest going to the Netanyahu bloc. In a separate allocation based on the lists’ political alignment, with Avi Karo’s party divided evenly between the blocs, the gap narrowed by just 774 votes, to 29,177. The review therefore found that the vote totals showed a much narrower advantage than the seat distribution, but still an advantage for Netanyahu’s bloc. As another check, the investigation recalculated seat allocation under a hypothetical 2% electoral threshold. Meretz and Balad would have crossed that threshold, but the Jewish Home would not; even in that scenario, the Netanyahu bloc would still have held 61 seats. The evidence supports the distinction at the heart of the claim: election results by votes were closer than the parliamentary seat count suggested, but the review’s stated calculations do not show the Netanyahu bloc losing the vote-count comparison.

dpaElections & voting

Video zeigt Massenprotest gegen Wahlbetrug in Brasilien.

Publisher’s rating: Das Video wurde am 7. September 2022, am brasilianischen Unabhängigkeitstag, aufgenommen. Es zeigt somit keine Demonstration gegen die Ergebnisse der Präsidentschaftswahl, die am 30. Oktober der linke Ex-Präsidenten Luiz Inácio Lula für sich entschied.

The claim concerns a Facebook video of a large crowd in Brazil, presented as evidence that Bolsonaro supporters were still protesting election fraud about a month and a half after the presidential vote. The review identifies a different event: a gathering in Rio de Janeiro on Brazil’s Independence Day, 7 September 2022. Its account says the video predates the election result, so it cannot show a protest against that result. The review describes how the investigation compared the viral footage with other images. A reverse-image search led to similar footage, and a Poder360 video showed the scene from a similar viewpoint. The investigators matched the positions of cranes carrying large Brazilian flags; they also used buildings to identify the location as Copacabana beach. The article reports that Poder360 covered demonstrations there on 7 September. The timing is decisive: Lula’s victory over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro was determined on 30 October, after the video was recorded. The review also says international election observers found the 2022 election orderly and recognized its result, while the footage itself depicts the earlier Independence Day gathering—not a post-election demonstration against the outcome.

dpaElections & voting

Video ist nach Präsidentschaftswahl in Brasilien entstanden

Publisher’s rating: Das Video entstand bereits im September dieses Jahres, einige Wochen vor dem Wahlergebnis am 30. Oktober. Es hat mit dem Ausgang der Wahl also nichts zu tun.

The claim concerns a video shared on Facebook as showing millions protesting in Brazil against a supposedly stolen election. The review examined whether those images actually showed protests after the 2022 presidential election. It reports that the video had already appeared online before the election result on 30 October, so it could not depict a protest occurring in response to that result. To establish the video’s earlier history, the review describes using reverse image search on selected frames. It says the footage was published on TikTok before the change of power and was online by 11 September at the latest, based on comments visible on the post. The review also locates the recording at Brasília’s Esplanada dos Ministérios, identifying the site by the white dome of the National Museum Honestino Guimarães. The review says AP and Reuters also examined the video and suspected it was recorded during a Bolsonaro speech on Brazil’s Independence Day. That is presented as their assessment, not as a definitive identification of the recording’s occasion. The evidence reported by the review establishes that the footage predates the election result; it does not establish that the video shows post-election demonstrations.

dpaElections & voting

Dieses Video zeigt Proteste gegen das Ergbenis des basilianischen Präsidentschaftswahl.

Publisher’s rating: Das Video zeigt keine Proteste gegen das Wahlergebnis vom 30. Oktober. Es wurde am 7. September aufgenommen, dem brasilianischen Unabhängigkeitstag.

The video was presented as evidence of mass demonstrations against the result of Brazil’s presidential election. The review places that claim in the post-election period: Jair Bolsonaro had lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and some Bolsonaro supporters believed the election had been fraudulent. But the video itself was older than the result it was said to protest. The review identifies it as footage recorded on September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, rather than a demonstration against the October 30 result. To investigate the footage, the review describes using Google Lens for a reverse image search. That search led to visually similar videos, including Poder360 footage showing the same cranes with large Brazilian flags hanging from them. The review also reports finding the purportedly viral footage published by the newspaper Jornal da Cidade under a title identifying a million voices praying the Lord’s Prayer. These matches connect the circulating video to Independence Day celebrations at Copacabana, not to post-election protests. The review further says the location is identifiable from buildings in the footage and that searching for videos from September 7 led to the same video. Although the celebration occurred shortly before the election and Bolsonaro used Copacabana as a campaign backdrop, that political context does not make the recording a protest against the later result.

Folha de S.PauloElections & voting

Em vídeo postado no Facebook pelo portal britânico MW3.News, uma narração em voice-over acusa o presidente do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), ministro Alexandre de Moraes, de ter instaurado uma “ditadura” no Brasil e forçado os cidadãos a aceitar a vitória de Lula nas eleições presidenciais de 2022. A gravação alega haver um conluio entre Moraes, Lula e uma organização criminosa internacional. O conteúdo diz também ter havido fraudes no pleito presidencial e que Moraes determinou a prisão de todos os indígenas que o critiquem. O vídeo mostra cenas dos atos de violência cometidos por bolsonaristas em Brasília, em 12 de dezembro, e os atribui a extremistas de esquerda infiltrados nos protestos de aliados do presidente Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Publisher’s rating: Falso

FACTLYElections & voting

Video of a Muslim women accusing Gujarat police of assaulting them and not allowing Muslims to cast their votes during the recent Gujarat Elections 2022

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Muslim women accusing Gujarat police of assaulting them and stopping Muslims from voting in Gujarat’s 2022 elections. FACTLY’s review identifies the footage instead with the Rampur bye-poll in Uttar Pradesh: it says the woman in the video accuses the Uttar Pradesh Police administration, and that the footage is unrelated to the Gujarat elections. The review describes how it traced the clip. A reverse-image search of screenshots from the post led to a video with similar visuals published by a local news channel on 5 December 2022. That channel described allegations of police harassment and violence against Muslim voters during the Rampur bye-poll. FACTLY also reports hearing the woman refer to the people of Rampur, and says Brut and other news websites published the video as footage of allegations involving UP Police and the Rampur vote. As further provenance, the review says the Samajwadi Party posted a video on 5 December alleging that police were preventing Muslims from voting in the Rampur bye-poll, and that news outlets reported those allegations. Taken together, the review links the shared footage to Rampur—not Gujarat—and identifies the Gujarat-election attribution as false.

dpaElections & voting

De video toont een protest tegen de Braziliaanse verkiezingsuitslag.

Publisher’s rating: Het bericht klopt niet. De video is van 7 september dit jaar, onafhankelijkheidsdag in Brazilië. Het dateert dus van voor de verkiezingen van 30 oktober. Bolsonaro greep de feestdag wel aan om uitvoerig campagne te voeren en trommelde velen van zijn aanhangers op om de straat op te gaan die dag.

The claim concerns a crowd filmed on a Rio de Janeiro boulevard that was presented as protesting Brazil’s election result. The review identifies the location as Copacabana and dates the footage to 7 September 2022, Brazil’s Independence Day. That was before the presidential election rounds on 2 and 30 October, so the video cannot depict a protest against the result of those elections. The review describes how it traced the footage. A reverse-image search led to a video filmed from approximately the same viewpoint, with cranes carrying Brazilian flags in the same positions and President Bolsonaro visible on the raised platform. The accompanying description placed that video on Copacabana on 7 September. The review further says that searching for videos of the day’s events led to the exact video circulating online: it shows the crowd saying the Lord’s Prayer together. The review also notes relevant context: Bolsonaro attended the Copacabana event and had campaigned at public events on Independence Day. The crowd and celebration therefore had a political dimension, but the footage predates the elections and does not show a demonstration against their outcome.