PeakMetrics / Fact Checks
Elections & voting fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about elections & voting. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
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Search by text or image5,414 published reviews in this topic
Robredo was reading a script at the CNN Phils presidential debate
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Screenshot of the ‘Zee News’ exit poll predicting the Samajwadi Party’s victory in the UP Elections
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerned a screenshot presented as a Zee News exit poll predicting that the Samajwadi Party (SP) would win the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, with the image allegedly showing the party winning 227–230 seats. FACTLY examined whether Zee News had issued such an exit poll and compared the circulated image with Zee News poll graphics. Its review says the screenshot was altered, rather than an authentic exit-poll result. The timing was central to the check. FACTLY reports that mainstream channels, including Zee News, were to broadcast exit polls only after 6 pm on 7 March 2022, once voting in the final phase had concluded. It also says Zee News had not published the purported exit poll on its YouTube channel or other social-media accounts. Those findings do not fit the screenshot’s presentation as an already published Zee News exit poll. FACTLY distinguished the fabricated exit-poll image from an actual Zee News poll. It reports that the channel had published a final opinion poll on 4 February, conducted with political campaign management company Design Boxed. That poll projected 130–151 seats for SP and 241–263 for the BJP, making SP the second-largest party in the projection—not the winner with 227–230 seats. The review says it compared Zee News opinion-poll templates with the shared image and concluded the image had been edited.
The ‘Zee News’ and the ‘India TV’ opinion polls predicting the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) victory in the Punjab Elections
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerns social-media screenshots presented as Zee News and India TV opinion polls predicting a decisive Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) victory in the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections. The review says the circulated images predicted 65–75 seats for SAD, but reports that the polls from both broadcasters instead projected no party would cross the majority mark.
BJP has emerged as the third largest party in the Tamil Nadu local body elections 2022
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerned the 2022 Tamil Nadu local body elections: social media posts said the BJP had emerged as the third-largest party and, in one version, claimed it had won entire local bodies. The review compared the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission’s ward results across corporations, municipalities and town panchayats. It notes that the Commission had released ward totals but, as of 24 February 2022, had not released vote-share figures. The comparison therefore concerns seats won, not vote share. The BJP won 22 corporation wards, 56 municipal wards and 230 town panchayat wards: 308 of 12,838 seats in total. On that count, the BJP ranked fourth among individual parties. The review says the DMK won 7,701 wards and the AIADMK 2,008; independents collectively won 1,945, more than the Congress’s 592 or the BJP’s 308. Thus, if independents are counted as a group, they rank third overall and the BJP ranks fifth. Among parties, Congress—not the BJP—was third. The review also distinguishes ward wins from control of whole local bodies: it says the ward-level results had been misrepresented as the BJP winning entire corporations, municipalities or town panchayats. Looking only at competitive elections and excluding wards where candidates were elected unanimously, it reports 12,818 wards; in that comparison the BJP remained fourth among individual parties, with 308 wards and a 2.4% win rate. These counts explain why the third-place claim does not hold under either the individual-party ranking or the ranking that groups independents together.
Video of BJP distributing money in the ongoing 2022 assembly elections
Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING
FACTLY examined a post presenting a video as evidence that the BJP was distributing money in the ongoing 2022 assembly elections. The review says the footage instead came from the Huzurabad by-poll in Telangana, held in October 2021, so it was not footage from the 2022 elections. The claim concerned cash allegedly being given to voters; the review describes the video as claiming BJP distributed ten thousand rupees per voter. [S1: “The video claiming that BJP distributed ten thousand rupees per voter is from Huzurabad by-poll in Telangana which was held in October 2021.”] To trace the footage, the review reports conducting a reverse image search on screenshots from the circulating video. That search found a video with similar visuals on Telugu news channel NTV’s official YouTube channel. FACTLY says the NTV upload, which made the same ten-thousand-rupees-per-voter claim in Huzurabad, was uploaded on 28 October 2021. This links the shared visuals to reporting predating the 2022 elections. [S1: “When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a video was found with similar visuals. The video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Telugu news channel NTV claims that BJP distributed ten thousand rupees per voter in Huzurabad. However, the YouTube video was uploaded on 28 October 2021.”] The review places the video amid campaigning for the Huzurabad by-poll, where it says videos alleging cash-for-votes by both the BJP and TRS went viral. It also distinguishes that older footage from a separate video that went viral during campaigning for the 2022 assembly elections: that later video concerned a BJP candidate’s son distributing cash, and the Election Commission served the candidate a notice. [S1: “Videos (including the viral video) claiming cash for votes by both BJP and TRS went viral during the campaigning for the Huzurabad by-poll. Recently, amidst the campaigning for the 2022 assembly elections, a video of a BJP candidate’s son distributing cash went viral. In response, the EC served a notice to the candidate.”]
उत्तर प्रदेश में हो रहे चुनाव में अखिलेश यादव ने हार मान ली है और चुनाव के बाद वे लंदन जाने वाले है।
Publisher’s rating: Missing Context
കോണ്ഗ്രസ് ബൂത്തില് പ്രവര്ത്തകന് മേശമേല് തലചായ്ച്ച് ഉറങ്ങുന്ന ചിത്രം
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
ये वीडियो अभी चल रहे उत्तर प्रदेश विधानसभा चुनाव का है और उन्होंने गलती से भा.ज.पा. की जगह कांग्रेस के लिए वोट मांगे।
Publisher’s rating: False
Report of Samajwadi Patry’s missing election symbol in the EVMs in Farrukhabad
Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING
The claim concerned a video alleging that the Samajwadi Party’s election symbol was missing from an EVM at a polling booth in Farrukhabad during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections. The review identifies the specific location as booth 38 in Assembly Constituency 194 and says the party had raised the allegation. It reports, however, that the police response described a different problem: a voter complained that the candidate’s photograph was not printed on VVPAT slips. To check the video’s provenance, the review says a reverse-image search of its screenshots led to a longer video with the same visuals on Bharat Samachar’s official YouTube channel. It also says it searched for reports of the Farrukhabad incident and found coverage of the party’s tweet. The decisive evidence cited is a reply from Fatehgarh police: the voter’s VVPAT-related complaint was resolved after he was told that party symbols, rather than candidate photographs, are printed on the slips. The account therefore does not establish that the party symbol was absent from the EVM.
आज बहन जी ने सच बोल ही दीया। मुसलमान कट्टरपंथी हैं, चुनाव ना जीत जाए इसलिए मैने अपना वोट BJP को ट्रांसफर कर दिया। “मायावती
Publisher’s rating: Missing Context
अखिलेश यादव ने कहा जिन्हें कानून नहीं मानना है और गरीबों पर अन्याय करना है, उन्हें समाजवादी पार्टी को वोट देना चाहिए
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Video of Akhilesh Yadav appealing for votes and asking anti-social elements to vote for the Samajwadi party
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The video under review appeared to show Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav urging people who disregard the law or harm the poor to vote for his party. FACTLY identifies the footage as an excerpt from his speech at a Samajwadi Party workers’ conference in Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh, on 16 February 2022. Its account says the viral clip reverses the meaning of part of that speech. To check the clip, the investigation searched YouTube using relevant keywords and found a video of the conference on the Samajwadi Party’s official channel. FACTLY compared the viral 21-second video with the full speech. At 23:52–24:14, Yadav says that people who take the law into their own hands and do not follow it should not vote for the party. The review says this appeal is the opposite of what the edited clip presents. The review concludes that the speech segment was digitally edited to make it appear that Yadav encouraged anti-social elements to vote for the Samajwadi Party. It also notes that he had made similar appeals in earlier media interactions, but the excerpt does not provide the details of those reports. The evidence described in the review therefore addresses this specific clip through comparison with the identified full speech.