US President Donald Trump arrives to speak, flanked by Karen Pence, US Vice President Mike Pence and US First Lady Melania Trump. during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, early on November 4, 2020.
Viral posts are partly false about less than a dozen discarded ballots in Pennsylvania. They weren't found in a ditch and aren't evidence of fraud.A post on Facebook on Sept.
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False claims about the election process are spreading online in wake of the 2020 vote. The USA TODAY Fact Check team is dedicated to verifying claims and fighting misinformation. Here's a list of recent fact-checks related to the 2020 election:
Fact check: Pennsylvania voters exposed to COVID-19 can still vote
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Pennsylvania officials did not "attempt to silence voters" exposed to COVID-19 by telling them via letter they can't vote in person. Letters have been sent to Pennsylvanians exposed to the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, and the letter makes no mention of the election.
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Fact check: Poll watcher turned away at Philadelphia polling station in misunderstanding
A poll watcher was turned away from a Philadelphia polling station due to a legal misunderstanding, but he was allowed back in after the mistake was recognized. This appears to be an isolated incident.
Fact check: 'Nothing wrong' with Kentucky county's voting Nov. 3, clerk says
A Facebook post made on Oct. 13 about a voting holdup in Fayette County, Kentucky, was shared as if it was made on Nov. 3. While there was a brief hold up in voting the day the post was created, the Fayette County clerk said the delay was mischaracterized in the post – and the timing of the post's share is misleading.
Fact check: Video misrepresents timing and severity of Scranton ballot-scanning machine outage
Some news sources claimed vote counting software from Dominion Voting Systems deleted votes for Trump or switched votes to Biden. That's false.OAN’s Lilia Fifield made the claim on air earlier this week, per a clip on Mediaite.
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Voting machines did go down in several polling districts in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the morning of Election Day, but all machines were up and running in under 2.5 hours. The video, labeled "BREAKING," was shared several hours after the issues were fixed.
Fact check: Image does not show massive wall in front of White House
The image at hand does not show a massive wall in front of the White House; it's fabricated from a 2009 image. The National Park Service confirmed the photo does not resemble the actual fencing at the White House that federal authorities did put up.
Fact check: Bricks in Detroit are for construction projects, not to incite violence
There's no evidence bricks were purposely staged in Detroit to incite violence. Detroit police and the owner of a local construction company confirmed the bricks photographed are for construction projects.
Fact check: No one was allowed to vote after Nov. 3
Even if the election results were contested and Trump doesn't concede, experts have agreed that it is unlikely for Trump to win the election this way. Our fact-check sources: Shane Vaughn, Nov. 8 Facebook video USA TODAY, Nov. 5: “No presidential candidate in modern history has refused to concede, but there's no law that requires it” Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 12th Amendment United States House of Representatives History, Art & Archives, Electoral College & Indecisive Elections Excess of Democracy, Sept.
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Despite the post's claims, all Americans, including Democrats, must vote on or before Election Day. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by that day.
On counting votes
Fact check: Typo led to false post about Michigan votes showing up 'magically' for Biden
A typo by a local Michigan county accounts for a sudden increase in Biden votes. The error was quickly corrected, and framing the incident as evidence of fraud is a gross mischaracterization.
Fact check: Democrat-led states did not stop counting votes for no reason
Mail-in ballots take longer to count, so many states counted overnight. Reports of counting delays or stoppages were either explained or false.
Fact check: That spike in the Wisconsin vote tally was expected and legitimate, not fraud
The vote tally in Wisconsin jumped at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 4 because that's when officials finished counting the city of Milwaukee's absentee ballots, a group of votes expected to lean heavily left. It's false to call the spike in the voting count fraud.
In the past week, comments by Federal Election Commission Chair Trey Trainor have spread online as purported evidence over voter fraud.RecentlyHeard.com, a news website, wrote that "The Chief Electoral Officer of the Federal Election Commission made a Bombshell statement, saying that, from what he saw in Pennsylvania, and news that he had come from elsewhere in the world, this election was unconstitutional.
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Fact check: No, Wisconsin did not take a break from counting election results
Some of the state's election results arrived late due to an influx of mail-in ballots, not because officials took a break. And President-elect Joe Biden never held a large lead there.
Fact check: Post-election ballot counting not dependent on state's party
None of the seven key states left in play on Nov. 4 were fully Democrat-run, some more than others. And, the time it took to count ballots in each state can be explained by circumstances or state law.
Fact check: Claim saying ongoing ballot counting is cheating, voter fraud is inaccurate
A claim that ongoing ballot counting in Pennsylvania is cheating or fraudulent is false.
Fact check: Votes in Virginia accidentally tallied for Biden, error quickly fixed
There were 100,000 Central Absentee Precinct ballots that were mistakenly entered for Joe Biden in Fairfax County's unofficial election results spreadsheet, but the error was quickly noticed and fixed. The county's spreadsheet has been amended, and the state Board of Election's total votes counted tally never reflected the error
Fact check: Georgia ballot curing is not election fraud
Ballot curing is a legal process that ensures voters who cast their ballots by Election Day have a chance to see their vote counted. It's allowed in many states, and there is no evidence ballot curing was used to commit election fraud in Georgia.
Michigan's elections board recommended certification, saying Detroit had fewer problems than the August primary and the 2016 presidential election. "As in past elections, some jurisdictions made errors in reporting unofficial results," the report said. "These errors are all attributable to human error in the operation of tools used to report unofficial results, did not affect the actual tabulation of votes, and were identified and corrected.
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Fact check: Wisconsin county did not have a glitch that stole votes from Trump
A data entry error by the Associated Press left presidential totals transposed for several minutes, but election officials were not involved. The votes in Rock County were counted following standard procedure.
Fact check: No, Wisconsin votes don’t have to be counted by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3
Voters in line at 8 p.m. on Election Day can legally cast their vote. No judge made this ruling, and an earlier ruling from a federal judge — since upheld by an appeals panel — actually did the opposite, allowing any absentee ballots returned by Nov. 9 to be counted, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
On calling states
Fact check: 14 of the first 25 states called went to Trump, contrary to viral claims
The claim that blue states were called immediately, while red states were not is false. Of the first 25 states called by the Associated Press, 14 were for Trump. There's also no evidence vote counting was paused to "find" ballots.
Fact check: Key Senate races left uncalled due to uncounted ballots, not fraud
The five states still not called on Nov. 5 still had unreported votes outstanding. None of those states had elected new Republican senators when the post was made, though some races appear as if they may eventually.
Fact check: CNN never made – or retracted – Arizona call for Joe Biden
A spokesperson for CNN said the news network never called Arizona for Biden, and USA TODAY found no evidence indicating otherwise.
A meme correctly quotes onetime Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell. But her assertion that he won the election "by a landslide" is false.“We are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to back down. We are going to clean this mess up. President Trump won by a landslide and we are going to prove it. We are going to reclaim the United States of America,” reads a Facebook meme.
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Fact check: Political news website never called Pennsylvania for Joe Biden
Real Clear Politics never called Pennsylvania or switched it from Biden as many social media posts claim, according to its co-founder and president, Tom Bevan, as well as its Washington bureau chief, Carl M. Cannon.
Fact check: Some electoral maps show Trump leading with 232 votes. They're wrong.
Epoch Times, Gateway Pundit, and EveryLegalVote.com show a different electoral vote count for two reasons: They exclude states with pending litigation or recounts, subtracting votes from Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and in one case Virginia, from Biden. They also called North Carolina for Trump, though the state was not done counting as of publication time and has not been called by the Associated Press. Their counts are incorrect.
Fact check: Election unlikely to be decided in the House, even if Trump refuses to concede
While all presidential elections have the potential to be decided in the House of Representatives under the Constitution, the post fails to mention key steps needed in order for the election to go to the House. Even if the election results were contested and Trump doesn't concede, experts have agreed that it is unlikely for Trump to win the election this way.
Fact check: Wisconsin has more registered voters than ballots cast
The number for registered Wisconsin voters stated by a Facebook image is incorrect. Over 3.6 million voters were registered in the state as of Nov. 1, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which denied there being more ballots than registered voters.
Fact check: Wisconsin turnout in line with past elections, didn't jump 22% as claimed
Turnout is measured as a percentage of eligible voters, not registered voters. Donald Trump Jr.’s figures use eligible voters for the 2016 figure but registered voters for 2020. Using the proper denominator for 2020 shows a turnout around 72%, firmly in the range of past presidential elections.
A claim that Nevada's attorney general admitted to changing signature verification for thousands of votes is false.One Facebook user on Nov. 16 claimed: "Nevada AG Admits to Changing Signature Verifications Manually for Over 200,000 Votes.
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Fact check: Milwaukee wards did not have more votes for president than registered voters
The numbers cited by Milwaukee City Wire do not match data from the Milwaukee County clerk’s office, which show the number of registered voters exceeded ballots cast.
Fact check: States don't have more than 100% voter turnout in an election
Updated data and individual state reporting show no state had more than 100% voter turnout for the 2020 election. The implication that Democrats doctored election results to show higher turnout than possible is based off outdated data that has since been updated.
Fact check: There was strong Navajo support for Biden, but numbers cited in claim have changed
The statistics in the social media posts are inaccurate – possibly because they came from an article that cited returns before the full vote count was in. However, it is true that among the three Arizona counties that overlap the Navajo Nation, the vote went 58% to Biden and 42% to Trump, with some individual precincts on the Navajo Nation up to 90% for Biden.
Fact check: Dominion voting machines didn't delete votes from Trump, switch them to Biden
A national election security coalition announced on Thursday that "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." Other experts and Dominion itself also condemned the claims.
Fact check: Dual language ballots create confusion in Georgia's Gwinnett County data
The Voting Rights Act ensures language assistance to individuals not proficient in English by providing electoral material and other information in their native language. Gwinnett County meets the thresholds to require electoral material in another language due to its sizable Latino or Hispanic population. Single ballots are thus printed on two sheets, one in English and one in Spanish, which are both counted in the county's election summary results and cannot be omitted under federal law.
Fact check: North Carolina vote total for governor didn't exceed ballots cast
Our research of the official vote tally shows the assertion that only 4.5 million votes were cast is wrong, rendering moot any issue about a purported half-million or more "extra" votes. The vote totals for two gubernatorial candidates are correct for the time the claim was made, but they are incomplete, missing three candidates. Any suggestions of fraud are baseless
Fact check: Kanye West, other third-party candidates, not leading in Kentucky voting
The screenshot showing a number of third-party presidential candidates leading at the polls in Kentucky depicts fake election results. Kanye West has not received 40,000 votes in Kentucky.
Fact check: Trump ballots were not thrown out as claimed by fake poll worker
Instagram user @omg_seabass, who claimed to be an Erie County poll worker, is not in any way associated with the county, and the claim has been denied by Carl J. Anderson III, the chair of Erie County's Board of Elections. Additionally, poll workers do not have access to marked-up ballots in a way that would allow disposal.
Fact check: False claim that viral video shows Trump ballots being burned
City officials in Virginia Beach, Virginia, have confirmed that a video shows sample ballots. There is no evidence that ballots burning in a viral video were real ballots.
Fact check: Partly false claim about discarded ballots in Pennsylvania amplified by Eric Trump
It is true that nine military ballots were incorrectly discarded in a dumpster — seven of which were cast for President Donald Trump — were incorrectly discarded in a dumpster, but the incident was an error by a contractor, not evidence of cheating. The Pennsylvania secretary of state also stated that the situation was not "intentional fraud."
Fact check: Post about stolen – and returned – Arizona ballots lacks context
It’s true that stolen ballots were found under a rock in Arizona. But the ballots had not yet been opened or filled out, and all 18 of the stolen ballots were returned to the voters three days prior to Election Day.
Fact check: Viral video claiming to show 'shredded mail-in ballots' is of printing waste
A company confirmed that the video is of printing waste, not ballots that were not delivered. The applications are blank, not "for Trump."
Fact check: False claim that photo of discarded mail shows ballots cast for Trump
Seven discarded ballots for Trump were found in Pennsylvania after an error by a temporary contractor, not the U.S. Postal Service. Based on our research, the claim that a photo shows mail-in ballots cast for President Donald Trump discarded on the side of a road is false, and our research did not reveal discarded Trump ballots in California or Texas.
Fact check: 2018 empty mail-in ballot envelopes in California dumpster spur false fraud claims
Sonoma County officials confirmed that the photos on social media are of old empty envelopes from the November 2018 election and were recycled after the state's mandated 22-month ballot preservation period.
Fact check: False QAnon claim that Trump secretly watermarked mail-in ballots to prove fraud
A QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theory claims President Donald Trump had mail-in ballots secretly watermarked to prove Democrats committed fraud, but federal officials and ballot printers confirmed to USA TODAY that's impossible. Mail-in ballots are designed by local governments and ordered from private printers.
Fact check: Wisconsin clerks followed guidance in place since 2016 about witnesses and absentee ballots
The claim that the Wisconsin Election Commission may have violated state law by allowing clerks to "fix" ballots is missing context, because the policy in question has been in place since 2016, without objection, was brought forth by Republicans and was unanimously passed by a nonpartisan commission.
Fact check: Mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day will count in some states
Some states won't count ballots received after Election Day, but many have extensions that allow for ballots to arrive and be counted after Nov. 3.
Fact check: Michigan governor encourages voters to drop off ballots, not mail them
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told voters to deliver their ballots in person, but she never explicitly told voters not to mail their ballots. At the time the claim was made, on Oct. 19, experts nationwide concurred that it was too late to rely on the mail to deliver ballots on time.
Fact check: Pennsylvania mail-in votes need 2 envelopes to be counted
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that officials can reject ballots that aren't properly enclosed in the required envelopes, and the state's secretary of state further confirmed the information is in an online voter guide. This claim is true.
Click here for more general fact checks on voting by mail.
Fact check: Viral video shows Pennsylvania poll workers fixing damaged ballots
County officials confirmed that workers were fixing damaged ballots and the video has been manipulated to crop out bipartisan observers who witnessed the process. The damaged ballots have been preserved, and Pennsylvania's Election Code states damaged ballots must be duplicated.
Fact check: Videos showing crowd locked out of Detroit TCF Center with windows obstructed are missing context
Viral videos depict crowds of challengers stuck outside Detroit's TCF Center as election workers count ballots inside behind obstructed windows. Statements from officials and witnesses clarify that Republican challengers were not more frequently denied entry, and the TCF Center's windows were covered because election workers felt intimidated.
Fact check: State legislatures choose electors, but electors vote how state dictates
It is true the Constitution grants state legislatures the power to choose electors for the Electoral College. But it is false to suggest that legislatures retain this authority after a popular vote on Election Day. A "safe harbor" provision of the Electoral Count Act dictates changing the slate of electors after election day is a violation of federal law.
Fact check: False claim that deceased Michigan man voted in 2020
While the screenshots posted to social media are real and can be replicated, Michigan’s Secretary of State's office debunked the claim as “misinformation,” and USA TODAY found evidence to support that.
Fact check: Lawsuit alleging errors in Detroit voter rolls was in 2019 and was settled
The report of a lawsuit alleging errors in Detroit voter rolls was accurate, but the posts fail to note that the case was filed in December and settled in June. It was not an issue in the 2020 election.
Fact check: No evidence vote was cast in Joe Frazier's name
There is no evidence to support this, and numerous election and county officials have confirmed that there is no evidence that dead people voted in Philadelphia.
Fact check: No evidence that 14,000 dead people cast ballots in Wayne County, Michigan
The list has been investigated and it was found that some individuals on the list were either still alive, or not living in Michigan. Other examples cited were the result of date of birth errors. Ballots cast by dead people in Michigan are rejected and there is no evidence of fraud.
Fact check: Claim that Pennsylvania case is proof of ‘dead people’ voting is under investigation
While Pennsylvania’s ballot tracker does show a recorded mail-in ballot for a Denise Ondick, county officials have yet to determine this was an instance of voter fraud. Moreover, experts say voter fraud involving the deceased is rare.
Fact check: Thousands of ballots were not sent to dead people or pets in Nevada, Virginia
About 500,000 voters in Virginia were sent vote-by-mail applications, not an actual ballot, that included incorrect return addresses. In Nevada, ballots for the primary election were returned due to a change of address. Election officials have not mailed absentee ballots in Nevada. Virginia started mailing absentee ballots on Sept. 18.
Fact check: Sharpie is 'perfectly fine' for Michigan ballots. In some counties, it is 'preferred.'
Multiple election officials confirmed that filling out ballots with a blue or black Sharpie is acceptable – and in some cases, even "preferred."
Fact check: Arizona election departments confirm Sharpies can be used on ballots
The Maricopa County Elections Department confirmed that Sharpies are preferred for filling out ballots. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has also confirmed that ballots marked with Sharpie pens would be counted.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: What's true and what's false about the 2020 election
Fact check: Nevada's AG did not admit to changing signature verification manually in election .
A claim that Nevada's attorney general admitted to changing signature verification for thousands of votes is false.One Facebook user on Nov. 16 claimed: "Nevada AG Admits to Changing Signature Verifications Manually for Over 200,000 Votes.