Skip to main content

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

Pagella PoliticaElections & voting

Abbiamo percentuali sopra il 50 per cento in tantissime città e siamo anche il primo partito in tante città del Centro e del Sud

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The statement was made by Lega leader Matteo Salvini at a press conference in Milan on 27 May 2019, as he commented on early projections from the European elections. The review examined two parts of his claim: whether the party exceeded 50% in “tantissime città,” and whether it was the most-voted party in many central and southern cities. For its city analysis, it considered 110 provincial or metropolitan capitals and expanded the sample to 168 cities, including some non-capitals. It used election results from the Italian Interior Ministry database and described its findings as its own calculations. The threshold claim was not borne out by the review’s main-city figures. The Lega exceeded 50% in none of the 110 provincial or metropolitan capitals. Across the wider 168-city sample, it exceeded that mark in only one city, Chioggia. The review also gives examples of strong but lower results in northern capitals, including 40.39% in Sondrio, 40.71% in Alessandria and 40.16% in Vercelli. These figures distinguish high support from the claim that support above 50% was widespread in cities. The second part was more accurate, though its reach depended on the sample and region. In 44 of the 106 cities examined in central, southern and island constituencies, the Lega was the most-voted party; in the central constituency, it led in 29 of 41 cities. But the review also notes a contrasting regional result: in the ten Campanian cities considered, it ranked third. Thus, the evidence supports the claim about being the leading party in many cities more than it supports the claim about surpassing 50% in many cities. The review’s final assessment reflects that mixed result.

FACTLYElections & voting

BJP and Congress candidates get 211820 and 140295 votes respectively in many constituencies

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a post alleging that BJP and Congress candidates repeatedly received identical vote totals—211820 and 140295 respectively—in constituencies during the 2019 general election. FACTLY says the post listed seven BJP candidates and attributed the same respective totals to the Congress candidates opposing them. The review compared the post’s figures with candidate results on the Election Commission of India’s results website, using the constituency names shown in the post to check the figures for each candidate. It reports that those official results did not match the claimed numbers and concludes that the candidates did not receive those totals in many constituencies.

The QuintElections & voting

People in Wayanad celebrate Rahul Gandhi's victory with Pakistani/Islamic flags.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video of people waving green flags and chanting “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad,” presented as a celebration in Wayanad after Rahul Gandhi won his seat. The Quint’s review says the video was misrepresented in two ways: the flags were not Pakistani or Islamic, and the footage was not from Wayanad. To identify the flags, the review compared them with flags of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a Kerala political party allied with Congress in the state. It reports that the visual comparison showed the flags belonged to the IUML, rather than Pakistan or an Islamic organization. To establish where the footage came from, the reviewers used InVid to reverse-search multiple keyframes. They found a YouTube video uploaded on 23 April, before Gandhi’s victory, captioned as an IUML event in Malappuram. The Quint also reports hearing support for Ramesh Unnithan, Congress’s candidate in Kasaragod, and says IUML general secretary MC Khamaruddin confirmed the footage was from that constituency. The review therefore identifies the video as campaign footage from Kasaragod, not a post-victory celebration in Wayanad.

Fact CrescendoElections & voting

Claim: Over 3 Lakh votes missing in Theni Constituency

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The allegation concerned the 2019 Theni parliamentary election. A Facebook post circulated a newspaper-style tally that added votes for only the five leading candidates, then compared that partial sum with the total and questioned what had happened to the remaining votes. The review says the post did not identify the newspaper it relied on. It checked whether leading newspapers had published the figures in that form and found no such report; it also noted that the figures were presented as leads rather than final results.

FACTLYElections & voting

A audit document of VVPAT/EVM votes in a polling station at Mydukur Assembly Constituency in Andhra Pradesh shows a discrepancy of 14 votes

Publisher’s rating: TRUE

The claim concerns a photograph of an EVM/VVPAT audit document said to show a 14-vote discrepancy at a polling station in Mydukur Assembly Constituency, Andhra Pradesh. FACTLY reports that examination of the photograph identified polling station 63 as the location of the reported discrepancy. The review’s conclusion was not that the document showed no mismatch: it says the Returning Officer confirmed that the discrepancy was real.