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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturElections & voting

«Verfassungswidrig» – dieses Urteil fällte das Bundesverfassungsgericht am 25. Juli 2012 über das 2011 reformierte Bundeswahlgesetz. Ein Autor des Blogs «DERUWA» (Deutschland-Russland-Wahrheit) zieht daraus einen weitreichenden Schluss: Dem Urteil folgend habe es von 1956 an bis heute «keine einzige gültige Wahl» gegeben, womit auch alle seither formulierten Gesetze und Verordnungen «nichtig» seien; die Beschlussgremien, Bundesrat und Bundestag, seien schließlich gar nicht rechtmäßig und legitimiert gewesen. Der Rechtsstaat sei darum seit mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert «erloschen» (hier archiviert).

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Das Urteil des Verfassungsgerichts aus dem Jahr 2012 bezog sich allein auf die seinerzeit jüngste und noch nicht angewandte Fassung des Bundeswahlgesetzes – und erklärte damit nicht alle vorangehenden Wahlen für nichtig.

BBC Reality CheckElections & voting

Postal ballots increase will cause "a fraud like you've never seen"

Publisher’s rating: Studies have not found evidence of widespread fraud, although there have been isolated cases.

At the first televised debate before the November 2020 US election, Donald Trump warned that an increase in postal voting would cause extensive fraud. The BBC review assessed that specific prediction, noting that a large proportion of voters were expected to use postal ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. It distinguishes the existence of individual fraud incidents from evidence that mail voting would produce widespread fraud. The review acknowledges reported incidents, including cases in North Carolina and New Jersey. It also describes a September statement from the US Department of Justice about Pennsylvania: nine military ballots had been discarded, and the department said seven were cast for Trump. These examples establish that incidents occurred, but the review presents them alongside broader research rather than treating them as proof of fraud on a widespread scale. For the broader question, the review says that numerous studies had not found evidence of major, widespread fraud. It gives a specific quantitative reference: a 2017 Brennan Center for Justice study estimated the overall US rate of voting fraud at between 0.00004% and 0.0009%. That figure concerns voting fraud overall, not a separately stated postal-ballot rate. Taken together, the cited research and the acknowledged isolated cases do not substantiate the prediction of widespread fraud from increased postal voting.

Vishvas NewsElections & voting

బీహార్ ఎన్నికల్లో బీజేపీ తరపున కంగనా రనౌత్ ప్రచారం చేయనున్నారు.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a specific political event: that Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut would campaign for the BJP in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. It circulated alongside a graphic presented as breaking news from ABP News. Vishvas News reports that it investigated the claim and concluded that the graphic and claim were false. The review says the BJP denied that Ranaut would campaign in Bihar: “బీహార్‌లో జరగబోయే అసెంబ్లీ ఎన్నికలకు కంగనా ప్రచారం చేస్తున్నారన్న వాదనలను బిజెపి ఖండించింది.” The review describes several checks of the purported announcement. Vishvas News searched online to see whether ABP News had published the report and says it found no such information on the channel’s website. It also says it found reporting that Bihar BJP election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis had denied the claim, and that it found no authentic reports confirming Ranaut would campaign: “కంగనా రనౌత్ బిజెపి కోసం ప్రచారం చేయడాన్ని ధృవీకరించే ప్రామాణికమైన నివేదికలు ఏవీ మాకు లభించలేదు.” The review also examined the graphic itself and contacted ABP News. It reports that the graphic had a punctuation error and a font unlike ABP News’s genuine font, and that the channel’s editorial department confirmed it was not an ABP graphic: “ఇది నకిలీ గ్రాఫిక్ ప్లేట్ అని, ఇది ABP ఛానెల్‌కు సంబంధించిన గ్రాఫిక్ ప్లేట్ కాదని వారు స్పష్టం చేశారు.” Taken together, the reported denial, absence of authentic confirmation, and verification that the purported news graphic was fake address the specific claim that Ranaut was set to campaign for the BJP in Bihar.