Fact-checking false claims about the 2020 election

Daniel Funke

Joe Biden is president-elect of the United States. But in Facebook groups, conservative media and the Trump White House, the battle for the presidency is far from over.

Since Election Day, PolitiFact has fact-checked more than 80 misleading or false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Federal agencies, state election officials and technology experts have all said this year’s election was among the most secure in American history.

Still, weeks after Election Day, Trump, his family and his supporters have amplified unfounded allegations of fraud and falsely claimed Trump won a second term in office.

Below are 80 of our fact-checks attacking the integrity of the election, organized by the 10 top misinformation trends we’ve seen since Nov. 3. Have a post or claim that you want us to fact-check? Send it to [email protected] .

Out-of-context photos and videos don’t prove ballot tampering

Since Election Day, a cascade of images and photos published on social media have claimed to show poll workers and others committing voter fraud. In fact, the posts mostly show election officials doing their jobs.

Election workers were falsely accused of misconduct

Social media has been awash in claims that election officials rigged the election in favor of Biden. Those claims are misleading or outright inaccurate.

One viral claim said election workers in Maricopa County, Ariz., forced voters to use Sharpies, which aren’t read by voting machines. In fact, Sharpies are preferred for filling out ballots.

Here’s a look at other claims:

Rumors of trashed votes for Trump didn’t pan out

A popular narrative on social media claims that ballots cast for Trump have somehow ended up in garbage cans across the country. Although some of these claims are accompanied by photos and videos, they don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Vote-counting was plagued by false claims

Misinformation about vote counts spread widely. Some Trump supporters took minor errors in the vote tabulation process or an influx of legally cast mail-in ballots as evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Mail-in ballots and early voting misrepresented

An influx of mail-in ballots and early in-person voting, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, provided fertile ground for partisans to cast doubt on legally cast votes. That influx tended to favor Biden, as Democrats were more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.

Trump did not win the election, despite social media claims

Perhaps the most persistent falsehood about the election is one that the president himself has repeatedly promoted: Trump won the election instead of Biden. Other false claims have said the news media have a history of making inaccurate predictions about presidential winners.

Voting machines were not rigged for Biden

Since the presidential race was called for Biden, disinformation has targeted some of the companies that built voting machines Americans used to cast their ballots. Two companies in particular, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, have been falsely accused of rigging the election against Trump.

There’s no evidence of widespread illegal voting

In battleground states that Trump needed to win to secure a second term, there has been an influx of claims about illegally cast ballots — including some that say dead people voted in the election. Those claims haven’t panned out.

Claims of more votes cast than registered voters are false

Social media users and partisans have said some battleground states have fewer registered voters than the number of votes cast in the presidential race. We crunched the numbers for Milwaukee wards, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The verdict for all: Pants on Fire!

The Biden campaign did not fabricate ballots

There is no evidence the Biden campaign, either by itself or in cahoots with criminal organizations, fabricated ballots to swing the election in its favor. Federal officials have said bad actors could not manipulate election results undetected even if they tried. The Trump campaign has not alleged a specific case of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, and there is no evidence of any.

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