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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

The QuintElections & voting

EVMs will not be used in constituencies with more than 100 candidates.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim under review was that constituencies with more than 100 candidates would not use EVMs, and that people should nominate additional candidates to prompt a return to paper ballots. The Quint describes this message as having circulated on social media and reproduces examples of it being shared. The review cites Election Commission of India spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan’s clarification on Twitter. She said that the latest EVMs could accommodate up to 384 candidates, including NOTA, and that those machines would be deployed wherever required. That capacity directly contradicts the claim’s assertion that crossing the 100-candidate threshold means EVMs cannot be used. The evidence in the excerpt supports a specific conclusion about candidate capacity and deployment: the 100-candidate limit asserted in the viral message does not apply to the latest EVMs described by the spokesperson. The excerpt does not provide technical documentation about the machines or details of the deployment process beyond her statement.

Fact CrescendoElections & voting

Claim: UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath distributing money to voters in public

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The review examines a viral video presented as showing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath giving money to voters and telling them to touch his feet. It describes people approaching him one by one to receive money, but says the video was being circulated with a misleading election-related interpretation. The review traces the footage to a video posted on 13 March by the Facebook page Amit Shah Fans, then uses InVid to extract a frame and Yandex to search for it. It reports finding an earlier upload by Vinay Kumar Gautam on YouTube, dated 21 April 2012. For the footage’s context, the review recounts Gautam’s explanation to The Quint: in April 2012, after farmland in Gorakhpur was burned, Adityanath visited affected farmers and gave them financial assistance as the Gorakhpur MP, including sums of ₹1,000 and ₹2,000. The review therefore distinguishes the video’s authenticity from the claim attached to it: it says the footage is genuine, but dates to 2012 and shows relief assistance, not election bribery. Its conclusion is that the claim that Adityanath was paying voters is false.

FACTLYElections & voting

Indian government’s affiliate, Crime Prevention Council of India has released a notice asking online users to abstain from posting political propaganda content before the elections 2019.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review examines a video claiming that India’s government-affiliated Crime Prevention Council of India had issued a notice telling people not to share political posts on social media ahead of the 2019 general election. It distinguishes the notice’s existence from the video’s claim about who was responsible: the council is described as an NGO, not a government affiliate. The review says the government had no connection to the notice. To check the organization’s status and the notice’s provenance, the reviewer visited the website address printed in the notice, cpcindiaonline.com, and found a letter in its “News and Events” section. According to the review, the council’s chairman, S K Pandey, identified the organization as an NGO working to reduce crime through awareness programs and workshops. That letter also qualified the council’s relationship to the notice itself: the review reports that Pandey said notice number 0322 had not been issued by the organization, but by an officer, Narendra Singh, who had been dismissed for doing so. Thus, the review’s evidence does not support presenting the notice as an official government-affiliated council action; it attributes the notice to an individual officer and says the council was not its issuer.

Fact CrescendoElections & voting

Claim: BJP used a bindi woman in Hijab to cheat voters

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The viral post presented a photograph of women in burqas with BJP scarves and suggested that Hindu women were posing as Muslim women for BJP campaigning. A bindi visible on one woman was offered as a clue. Fact Crescendo investigated whether the photograph was genuine and whether the women shown in it were disguising their identities. The review says the image had been shared more than 2,800 times. The investigation reports using InVid, metadata analysis and examination of the image to check for manipulation. It says the photo was altered: the woman’s image came from campaign footage, and a bindi was added to her forehead. The review also says it found a YouTube video showing the woman and other Muslim women participating in BJP-related campaigning. In the video, the woman had no bindi, including when the footage was examined more closely. The review’s conclusion distinguishes the real event from the viral image’s implication. It says Muslim women did take part in BJP campaigning, and identifies the video as recorded in December 2018. But it says no Hindu women wearing burqas to impersonate Muslim women were established by the evidence; the bindi-bearing image was fabricated by editing a photograph of a woman in the video. Thus, the post used an altered image to support an allegation the review found false.

FACTLYElections & voting

All the NRIs who hold Indian passport can vote online for the 2019 elections

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a circular shared on social media saying that all NRIs holding Indian passports could vote online in the 2019 elections. FACTLY’s review checked the claim against information attributed to the Election Commission of India (ECI), rather than treating online access to voter enrolment as online voting. The review reports that the ECI website had posted a disclaimer warning about the circulating fake news. The decisive distinction in the disclaimer was between applying to be enrolled and casting a ballot. As quoted in the review, “Overseas Indians may submit application for their enrolment in form 6A online at nvsp.in or by using Voter helpline mobile app.” But it also stated, “There is no online voting facility for any category of voter.” Thus, being able to submit an enrolment application online did not mean an overseas elector could cast a vote online. For voting on polling day, the ECI text said an overseas elector could attend their designated polling station and bring their passport for identification. FACTLY also says ECI spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan confirmed the position in tweets, though the excerpt does not reproduce those tweets. The evidence in the review therefore contradicts the circular’s claim of online voting while describing an in-person method for casting a ballot.