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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.

5,415 published reviews in this topic

MediaWiseElections & voting

Ballot markings from poll workers disqualify ballots

Publisher’s rating: Not Legit

The review addressed a heavily shared Facebook post claiming that a poll worker’s writing on a ballot could cause it to be disqualified. It reported that the post circulated on Oct. 13 and treated the claim as a question of whether poll-worker markings automatically invalidate ballots. The review emphasized that election rules differ by state, so the answer depends in part on the jurisdiction and the type of ballot involved. Evidence it described included North Carolina, where poll workers must mark certain ballots, including absentee and provisional ballots. The review distinguished an authorized or unnecessary mark from a mark that actually prevents a ballot from being counted. It said an unnecessary poll-worker mark would not, by itself, invalidate the ballot, though a mark that blocks a vote scanner from reading it could affect the ballot. Thus, the post’s categorical warning—that a poll worker’s writing means disqualification—did not reflect the review’s account of the rules. The review advised voters to check with their state election authority for current voting information.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturElections & voting

«Joe Biden gibt Wahlbetrug durch US-Demokraten zu» - diese Behauptung wird in Artikeln aufgestellt (hier archiviert), die sich vor den anstehenden US-Wahlen in den sozialen Netzwerken verbreiten. Als Beleg soll ein Video mit entsprechenden Aussagen von Biden dienen.

Publisher’s rating: Die Aussage ist aus dem Kontext eines Interviews gerissen. Darin sprach Biden über Maßnahmen, um gegen die Einschüchterung von Wählerinnen und Wählern vorzugehen - nicht über Pläne, die Wahl zu manipulieren.

The claim arose from a 24-second clip of Biden saying that his team had put together “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization” in American political history. The review says the clip was first posted by a US Republican Twitter account and was later shared by Donald Trump. It finds that treating the phrase as an admission of plans to manipulate the election omits the interview’s surrounding discussion. In the interview with the “Pod Save America” podcast, Biden had just urged viewers to make a plan for when and where to vote. He said Republicans were making it harder for people, especially people of color, to vote. The review also notes that Biden addressed the hosts directly, explaining that they had worked in the Obama administration. The review points to Biden’s remarks immediately after the viral excerpt as key context: he described the president as trying to deter voting, referred to long lines and early ballots, and told listeners who thought their vote was being challenged to call a number where, he said, more than 1,000 lawyers were available. In that setting, the review interprets “voter fraud organization” as referring to Democratic Party support for voters facing intimidation or challenges to their ballots—not a plan to commit fraud.

FACTLYElections & voting

Photos of PM Modi’s recent election rally in Bihar

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns photos circulated as showing a recent rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar during the 2020 election period. The review found that the three photos in the post were identical, but that the image was not from the recent rally: it showed an earlier event in Patna on 3 March 2019. To check the image, the review says it used Google Reverse Image Search. That search located the same photo on Modi’s website, where its description identified it as being from his NDA rally in Patna on 3 March 2019. The review also found the photo on Modi’s official Twitter account in 2019. On that basis, it concluded that the photo was old and not related to the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections. The review distinguishes the photo’s age from the separate fact that Modi had recently held a rally in Bihar. Its finding is that the specific circulated image does not document that recent rally; the review points to a recent Patna meeting video separately, without treating it as the source of the photos.

FACTLYElections & voting

Video of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s election rally in Madhya Pradesh

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review distinguishes between what the video depicts and the context in which it was shared. It says the footage does show Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at an election rally in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, but says it was not footage from the state’s then-current bye-elections. The issue was therefore the video’s implied timing and context, not whether it showed Vadra at a rally. To check the footage, the review says it ran screenshots through Google Reverse Image Search. It reports finding the same video on the Indian National Congress YouTube channel, titled “Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addresses a Public Meeting in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.” The review says that video was posted on 13 May 2019 and concludes that the footage was old rather than related to the current bye-elections.

FACTLYElections & voting

Image of a graffiti work saying ‘Go Back Modi’ in Bihar in the wake of the 2020 Assembly elections

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a “Go Back Modi” graffiti image said to be from Bihar in the wake of the 2020 Assembly elections. The review says the image instead showed a protest in Kolkata against the CAA and NRC in January 2020, and that it was unrelated to the Bihar elections. It describes the image as being shared online with the claim that it was a recent image from Bihar. To trace the image, the review reports that a reverse image search led to a journalist’s tweet carrying a similar image, dated 11 January 2020. It says further searches found January 2020 news articles showing a similar image from another angle, which those articles identified as a CAA- and NRC-related protest in Kolkata. The review also describes a location check: a clearer version of the photo showed a sign reading “METRO CHANNEL CONTROL POST ARE STREET POLICE STATION” on a nearby building. Using that clue to search Google Maps, the review says it located the place in Kolkata. Taken together, the image’s earlier online appearance, the contemporaneous reporting, and the described location clue support the conclusion that the photo was misattributed to Bihar and the 2020 Bihar election period.

Fact CrescendoElections & voting

Claim: Misinformation that BJP election campaign was stopped by Bihar people

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a social-media video presented as showing people in Bihar stopping a BJP election procession. The post’s caption said that people in Bihar were chasing and beating “Sanghis” from street to street. The review describes the video as having been shared on Facebook by the Tamilan Memes 4.0 page on October 25, 2020, in connection with the Bihar Assembly election campaign. Its central question was whether the footage actually showed that event. The investigators say the scene did not appear to be in Bihar: police officers wore turbans, and the vehicle markings included “Ambala Police.” They converted video frames into images and used reverse-image search. That search surfaced social-media posts describing a BJP rally in Ambala, Haryana, where farmers reportedly stopped a procession held in support of agricultural laws. The review also reports finding Hindi writing on police vehicles; its Hindi-language team identified it as reading “Haryana Police.” The review distinguishes evidence about the claimed event from evidence about the video’s provenance. It says searches for reports of a BJP rally being stopped in Bihar found no such news, while searches for the Ambala rally found related news and videos. However, the investigators explicitly say they did not find evidence proving that the particular video under review was filmed during the Ambala event. Their stated conclusion rests instead on the video’s visible vehicle markings and other clues: they conclude that it was filmed in Haryana, not during the Bihar election, and that it therefore does not substantiate the post’s Bihar claim.

Vishvas NewsElections & voting

బీహార్ అసెంబ్లీ ఎన్నికల్లో బిజెపి ట్రెండ్‌ ప్రారంభమైంది.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post under review paired the claim that a BJP trend had begun in Bihar’s assembly elections with a video showing an older man placing a garland of slippers on a BJP politician. The investigation’s conclusion concerned the video’s attribution to Bihar: it identified the footage as an older incident in Madhya Pradesh, not footage from the Bihar election campaign. The review says the Facebook post was uploaded on October 9, but does not establish that a BJP trend had or had not begun in Bihar by other means. To trace the footage, the investigators uploaded the viral video to InVID, extracted key frames, and searched them with Google reverse image search. They found reports published on January 8, 2018, about BJP candidate Dinesh Sharma and an incident in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. The review recounts that one report described the incident during assembly elections, while another located it in Dharnod. The review also reports that a local NaiDunia editor, Prem Vijay Patil, identified the footage as coming from the Dhamnod area of Dhar district during local-body elections and said it had no connection to the upcoming Bihar elections. This places an important qualification on the older reports’ descriptions of the election context. The evidence supports the finding that the video was misattributed to Bihar; it does not independently test the broader assertion about a BJP trend.