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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.

5,414 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYElections & voting

Image of an envelope with cash and Samajwadi Party symbol being used to bribe voters with cash ahead of the 2022 UP elections

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns an image circulated during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections, presented as evidence that the Samajwadi Party was bribing voters with cash. FACTLY examined the image’s history rather than independently verifying who placed the cash in the envelope or why. The investigation says a reverse image search led to the same image in a 2017 tweet. That older post also accused the Samajwadi Party of bribing voters. The review further reports that another image in the tweet showed the envelope’s reverse, with Samajwadi Party leader Vijay Bahadur Yadav pictured and the details “04 March 2017” and “Gorakhpur rural assembly constituency” printed on it. This establishes that the image predates the 2022 election by several years, so it cannot by itself document bribery during that election. FACTLY explicitly qualifies its finding: it could not independently establish the envelope’s context or further details. Its evidence supports rejecting the image as proof of the specific 2022 allegation, but does not establish what happened in 2017.

FACTLYElections & voting

Visuals of Yogi Adityanath buying votes by bribing voters with cash

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections that appeared to show Yogi Adityanath present while money was distributed. The original review says the post characterized the scene as “Yogi is buying votes with notes.” Its investigation found that the footage was from 2012, not a recent election event: it showed Adityanath giving monetary support to farmers whose crops had been damaged in a fire while he was an MP from Gorakhpur. The review describes checking the conversation audible in the clip between 1:48 and 2:14. A man reading names asks whether the people had sown crops in two places; a beneficiary replies that they had, and Adityanath asks for the beneficiary’s brother. The review says this exchange points to crop damage rather than vote-buying. It also reports that a 2019 Quint fact-check examined the same footage and that the person who originally shared the video confirmed its crop-compensation context. The review notes a limitation: it could not independently verify the complete context of the visuals. Nevertheless, it concludes that the available evidence places the footage in 2012 and finds no connection to the 2022 election or evidence that the money was being given for votes.

Fact CrescendoElections & voting

Claim: fake news card circulating on Annamalai election campaign

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a social-media card attributed to News 7 Tamil. The card claimed that Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai had canvassed in Chennai without realizing that no BJP candidate was contesting in that ward. It was shared on Facebook, including in a post dated February 13, 2022. The review’s conclusion concerns this specific card and allegation, not whether Annamalai campaigned elsewhere. [S1]

FACTLYElections & voting

Video of Smriti Irani predicting Akhilesh Yadav’s victory in a public meeting

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a 31-second clip of Smriti Irani speaking at a public gathering in Uttar Pradesh. In it, she refers to the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s hand-pump symbol and the Samajwadi Party’s cycle symbol, then says that if the RLD receives votes and support, a government of “red caps” would form. The claim attached to the clip was that Irani was predicting an Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party victory. The review identifies the footage as an excerpt from Irani’s speech at a public gathering in Baghpat. It says the clip was being shared out of context, and describes its checking process: an internet keyword search led FACTLY to a news report containing a longer version of the speech. In that fuller version, Irani’s remarks about the RLD and Samajwadi Party came after she referred to the 1990 Ayodhya firing, which she linked to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s order to police to fire on karsewaks marching toward Ayodhya. The review also points to what Irani said after the clipped passage. She said women had already decided they would not allow an SP-RLD government to form, then said she had come to hear what the men present had to say. FACTLY interprets those surrounding remarks as showing that the clipped words were not an expression of support for the Samajwadi Party. The longer-speech context therefore changes the apparent meaning of the viral excerpt: the clip contains the quoted words, but omits remarks that frame them as part of Irani’s argument against an SP-RLD government.