{"id":182562,"date":"2022-11-10T10:53:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T09:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/?p=182562"},"modified":"2024-07-29T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T13:16:00","slug":"midterm-election-newsguard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/2022\/11\/10\/midterm-election-newsguard\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 Midterm Election Misinformation Tracking Center by NewsGuard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As political misinformation has continued to spread online during the 2022 campaign season, NewsGuard\u2019s team of analysts has monitored the media landscape for prominent myths connected to voting<\/a> and individual races. As of Nov. 9, 2022, we have identified 14 Myths promoted on 20 websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NewsGuard will regularly update this Election Misinformation Tracker through and past Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. Check back here for the newest trending myths, which are added to the top of the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: Sharpie pens were improperly used to vote in Illinois<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022, social media users claimed that voters were improperly using sharpie pens to vote in Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLa Grange [Illinois] Precinct 89 voters report sharpies being used on ballots, which isn\u2019t allowed. NO SHARPIES ON BALLOTS,\u201d the Twitter account run by Awake Illinois, a conservative activist group, tweeted<\/a>. \u201cSharpie fraud in Illinois,\u201d user @RoBoCo_2 posted<\/a> on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other users claimed that sharpies would bleed through the ballots, rendering them invalid. \u201cWhy does Illinois have a double-sided ballot and then demand voters use a sharpie that will undoubtedly lead through the paper causing the ballot invalid? Why is this ok?\u201d Truth Social user @CARDINALSARERED posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it is legal to vote with sharpie pens in Illinois, and the ballots are designed so that the ink does not bleed through. In response to Awake Illinois\u2019 tweet, the Illinois State Board of Elections tweeted<\/a> on Nov. 8, 2022, \u201cSharpies are an approved ballot marking device for many voting systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a follow-up tweet posted the same day, the Illinois State Board of Elections stated<\/a>, \u201cThe ballots are intentionally designed so that bleedthrough does not cause a problem. The target ovals on one side [of a ballot] don\u2019t overlap on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Nov. 8 2022, Max Bever, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, told<\/a> WTTW-TV, a PBS-affiliated station, that if ballots are \u201ccontaminated\u201d by a bleedthrough a voter will receive a new ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2020 election, similar false claims were made about sharpies being improperly used in Illinois. In November 2020, the Illinois State Board of Elections published<\/a> a press release stating \u201cBallots in Illinois are designed so that the \u2018target area\u2019 \u2014 the oval to be filled in to mark a vote \u2014 on one side of a ballot does not align with a target area on the reverse side of the ballot. Thus, a vote on the reverse side could not be accidentally cast by ink soaking through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: A photograph shows Dr. Mehmet Oz posing with a campaign sign that says \u201cNo\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 12, 2022, Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for one of Pennsylvania\u2019s U.S. Senate seats, posed for a photograph at a campaign stop with staff at the Capitol Diner in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image taken at the event, and which was uploaded to Oz\u2019s social media accounts, shows Oz posing next to a campaign sign that was positioned horizontally and read \u201cOz.\u201d Oz\u2019s social media posts<\/a> said: \u201cFrom the dinner table to the Capitol Diner here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvanians are ready for new leadership. I\u2019ll fight for PA small businesses in the U.S. Senate.\u201d Fact-checkers with USA Today and Reuters later reported that this was the original version of the photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after Oz\u2019s campaign stop, however, an altered version of the photo was shared widely on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>, in which the sign that said \u201cOz\u201d was rotated so that it appeared to say \u201cNo.\u201d One Aug. 28, 2022, Twitter post<\/a> contained the altered image and the caption, \u201cDr. Oz gets trolled everywhere he goes and it makes me so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katya Rodriquez, the Capitol Diner staff member who held the sign in the photo, told<\/a> the AP that she was holding it horizontally \u2014 accurately spelling Oz\u2019s last name \u2014 when the photo was taken. Oz\u2019s senior communications advisor, Rachel Tripp, also told<\/a> the AP that she took the photo, and that the sign was rotated correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs staged a burglary at her campaign headquarters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Phoenix campaign headquarters of Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs was burglarized on Oct. 24, 2022, according to police reports<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbs\u2019 campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, suggested in a statement issued<\/a> on Oct. 26, 2022, that the break-in resulted from the rhetoric of Hobbs\u2019 opponent, Republican Kari Lake. \u201cSecretary Hobbs and her staff have faced hundreds of death threats and threats of violence over the course of this campaign,\u201d DeMont said. \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: for nearly two years Kari Lake and her allies have been spreading dangerous misinformation and inciting threats against anyone they see fit.\u201d DeMont did not specify what \u201cmisinformation\u201d he was referring to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a reporter asked Lake about DeMont\u2019s claim that same day, Lake replied<\/a>: \u201cThat is absolutely absurd. And are you guys buying that? Are you really buying that? Because this sounds like \u2018a Jussie Smollett\u2019 part two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many observers interpreted Lake\u2019s reference to Jussie Smollett \u2014 an actor convicted in Chicago in December 2021 of faking a hate crime against himself \u2014 as a suggestion that Hobbs faked the incident. Indeed, multiple social media users claimed that Hobbs may have orchestrated the break-in to gain sympathy from voters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, an Oct. 27, 2022, tweet<\/a> by conservative pundit Carmine Sabia said, \u201cWhat a coincidence that Katie Hobbs is pulling a Jussie Smollett because she is getting her clock cleaned by @KariLake. And the media is promoting it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some conservative websites also speculated that Hobbs staged the burglary. An Oct. 28 post<\/a>on InstaPundit.com stated, \u201cFALSE FLAG? Hobbs Blames Lake For Burglary, Then Dodges.\u201d StateoftheNation.co said in the headline of an Oct. 30, 2022, article: \u201cFirst she [Hobbs] stages a transparent burglary hoax, then she falsely accuses frontrunner Kari Lake of involvement.\u201dThere is no evidence that Hobbs staged the burglary (nor is there evidence that Lake\u2019s rhetoric led to the break-in). An Oct. 27<\/a> statement<\/a> from the Phoenix Police Department said that a 36-year-old named Daniel Mota Dos Reis was arrested in the case, after security cameras recorded him breaking into the campaign office. Police also said that Dos Reis had property stolen from Hobbs\u2019 office in his possession when he was first arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: A Wisconsin city used illegal mobile voting trucks ahead of the August 2022 primary election<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On July 30, 2022, The Gateway Pundit, which has a history of publishing misinformation about U.S. politics, reported on a mobile voting truck in Racine, Wisconsin, and falsely claimed<\/a> that no observers were allowed inside ahead of the state\u2019s Aug. 9, 2022, primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoon Democrats will steal and manufacture all of their ghost votes by mobile precincts. You don\u2019t have to be a genius to see that happening. City volunteers and staff work in the buses. But no GOP observers,\u201d The Gateway Pundit stated. On Aug. 13, 2022, The Gateway Pundit published another article<\/a> about the mobile voting truck, titled \u201cRacine, Wisconsin Used Illegal Mobile Voting Sites in Recent Primary \u2013 Same District Where Corrupt GOP Speaker Robin Vos Pulled a 260 Vote Win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An August 2022 article by The Associated Press<\/a> explained that the truck is staffed by city election officials and follows Wisconsin state laws for early-voting sites. According to The AP, the truck is primarily used for early in-person voting starting two weeks before an election, in compliance with Wisconsin state law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to some claims that spread online, the truck is not a ballot drop box. Unlike ballot drop boxes, the truck is staffed and is only open at certain times during the day. Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin also told The Associated Press that observers are allowed inside the truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sites that have promoted this claim include TheGatewayPundit.com, ConservativePlaylist.com<\/a>, and FreedomsPhoenix.com<\/a>. NewsGuard emailed these sites in November and October 2022. None responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: Maricopa County officials tried to rig Arizona\u2019s 2022 primary election by providing felt-tip pens to voters<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of Arizona\u2019s August 2022 primary election, the Maricopa County Elections Department announced that in-person voters would be supplied with Pentel felt-tip pens on Election Day instead of Sharpies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours after the county\u2019s announcement, websites<\/a> and social media<\/a> posts<\/a> claimed that the felt-tip pens were part of a plot to rig Arizona\u2019s elections. For example, a July 2022 article published by StopTheRinos.com<\/a>, a site funded by the Patriot Party of Arizona Political Action Committee, stated, \u201c#PentelGate is the hot new trend for 2022!! The #Uniparty is rigging the election\u2026again.\u201d It added, \u201cbleed-through on ballots provides the opportunity for fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no evidence that the felt-tip pens supplied at polling centers were \u201crigging the election\u201d or that they invalidated any ballots. Maricopa County officials switched to felt-tip pens because the ink dries quickly and reduces smudging, resulting in reduced wait times at the polls, according to a July 2022 press release<\/a> from the county\u2019s elections department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told The Associated Press<\/a> that while both Sharpies and Pentel pens have fast-drying ink, tests showed that felt-tip pens cause less bleed-through. Even in cases of bleed-through, ballots are designed with offset columns to ensure that votes are not impacted, according to the county\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maricopa election officials say that although bleed-throughs do not impact vote counting, the county decided to stop using Sharpies due to the controversy the markers caused during the 2020 election, when false claims surfaced alleging that Arizona election officials gave Republican voters Sharpies to invalidate their ballots. In a November 2020 letter<\/a>, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors stated that \u201cSharpies do not invalidate ballots\u201d and that processes are in place to ensure that bleed-through does not impact votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

StopTheRinos.com is one site that promoted this claim. The site did not respond to a NewsGuard email in November 2022 seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: Fraud prevented Tina Peters from winning Colorado\u2019s 2022 Republican primary for secretary of state<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peters, the El Paso (Colo.) County Clerk and Recorder, lost the June 2022 primary by a sizable margin. She finished second with approximately 180,000 votes, or 28.9 percent of the vote, according to official results<\/a> available through the Colorado secretary of state\u2019s website. Pam Anderson, a former city and county clerk, won with approximately 269,000 votes, or 43.1 percent, according to the official results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the results were tallied, Peters tweeted: \u201cWe didn\u2019t lose. We just found more fraud,\u201d NPR reported<\/a>. Similar claims were repeated on conservative news sites found by NewsGuard to repeatedly publish false content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in a July 29, 2022, video published on FrankSpeech.com<\/a>, site (and MyPillow) owner Mike Lindell said: \u201cThey cheated [Peters], amongst many others in these primaries. We\u2019re going to get to the bottom of it. She won and we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a risk-limiting audit and a recount confirmed Peters\u2019 defeat. Between July 11 and July 14, 2022, Colorado counties audited Peters\u2019 race and other contests by inspecting a small percentage of ballots and checking how election software recorded those votes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The secretary of state\u2019s office said in a July 25, 2022, news release<\/a>: \u201cThe reported winner in all the audited races was confirmed.\u201d Upon Peters\u2019 request, Colorado subsequently conducted a recount, which also confirmed Peters\u2019 defeat, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in an Aug. 4, 2022, news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FrankSpeech.com is one site that promoted this claim. Site owner Mike Lindell told NewsGuard in an August 2022 phone call: \u201c[Peters] won it and that will be proven. That will be proven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: A local TV station in Michigan reported the state\u2019s primary election results in advance<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

News Channel 3 (WWMT) inadvertently posted a trial run of its election coverage nine days before Michigan\u2019s August 2022 primary election, showing random vote counts for Republican gubernatorial and congressional candidates. Almost immediately, fringe news outlets and social media users claimed that the error was indicative of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 24, 2022, The Gateway Pundit published an article<\/a> titled \u201cCAUGHT: Michigan News Channel Posts Results to Republican Primary Election \u2014 That\u2019s Not Until Next Week!!\u201d The article did not actually claim that the station\u2019s move was evidence of fraud. Nevertheless, dozens of websites and social media users, citing The Gateway Pundit, then began advancing the false claim. One undated article<\/a> on WeLoveTrump.com said: \u201cAre the results to each election already written before the voting even takes place? This may lead you to believe the answer to that question is yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, WWMT clarified in a July 25 article<\/a> that the mock results were part of an internal test of its election reporting systems. \u201cIn advance of Michigan\u2019s Tuesday, Aug. 2 primary election, News Channel 3 was conducting a test of its election systems last week,\u201d WWMT said in a statement on its website. \u201cIn doing so, the station inadvertently published mock results on WWMT.com. The numbers used were randomly generated and did not reflect actual results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michigan\u2019s Department of State also issued a July 25 statement<\/a>, clarifying that it was not involved in the test: \u201cSupposed \u2018results\u2019 of the Aug. 2 Michigan primary election from WWMT TV-3 appearing online and in Google search results are not real. No votes have been counted in the election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WeLoveTrump.com is one site that promoted this claim. The site did not respond to a contact form from NewsGuard in October 2022 seeking comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: The U.S. Emergency Alert System is on standby in case Democrats steal the 2022 midterm elections<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The claim that former President Donald Trump sought to mobilize the military ahead of the midterm elections apparently originated on RealRawNews.com, a website that regularly publishes false stories about U.S. politics. A Sept. 18, 2022, story on the site<\/a>, titled \u201cEAS on Standby for Midterms,\u201d claimed that \u201cTrump said the military must use the EAS if the Deep State steals the midterms, for the results will affect the 2024 presidential election.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no evidence that former President Trump has instructed the military to trigger the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and he lacks the authority to do so anyway. Trump has not made any public comments about this subject, and a Pentagon spokesperson told fact-checking organization CheckYourFact.com<\/a> that the claim is \u201cfalse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EAS is a national public warning system<\/a> jointly operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s (NOAA) National Weather Service. It is not run by the U.S. military. The system is commonly used to broadcast urgent emergency information, such as weather and Amber alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sites that have promoted this claim include BestNewsHere.com<\/a>, RestoredRepublic.co<\/a>, and RealRawNews.com. BestNewsHere.com and RestoredRepublic.co did not respond to a November 2022 email and RealRawNews.com did not respond to a November 2022 contact form from NewsGuard seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: Beto O\u2019Rourke campaign workers raided nursing homes to steal votes from the infirm and elderly<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 1, 2022, a video appearing to show an interaction between two canvassers for Beto O\u2019Rourke\u2019s campaign for Texas governor<\/a> and an assisted living facility resident began circulating on social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 4, 2022, NewsGuard found that The Gateway Pundit reported<\/a> on the video in an article titled \u201cCAUGHT ON VIDEO: Beto O\u2019Rourke Campaign Workers Raid Assisted Living Facility Hunting for Votes \u2013 Democrats Stealing Votes from the Weak and Elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn assisted living resident is confronted by Beto O\u2019Rourke campaign workers who are raiding nursing homes to steal votes from the weak and elderly,\u201d the article stated. The story was republished in full on multiple fringe websites<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video, which was reviewed by NewsGuard, begins with one of the canvassers saying, \u201cWe\u2019re talking to our neighbors just to make sure you know there\u2019s an election coming up, and we want to encourage you to vote for Beto at the top of the ballot for governor on down.\u201d An apparent assisted living facility resident \u2014  a man who appears confused for much of the encounter \u2014 then asked, \u201cWho do you want me to vote for?\u201d The canvasser responded, \u201cWe recommend that you vote Democratic from the top to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in the video, the canvasser told the man to \u201cDefinitely vote for Beto\u201d and two other Democrats, appearing to point to their names on a pamphlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite The Gateway Pundit\u2019s claims, the canvassers\u2019 actions appear to comply with state and federal laws, and is not evidence of \u201cstealing votes,\u201d as Gateway Pundit claimed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed the right of individuals to go door-to-door for political activity. Moreover, federal and Texas law<\/a> allows canvassers to enter private property \u2014 including nursing homes and assisted living facilities \u2014 as long as<\/a> it is between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. and the canvasser has permission to enter the property. Canvassers are legally allowed to distribute campaign literature in person or to leave it in a place that is easily visible to voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sites that have promoted this claim include StateOfTheNation.co<\/a>, SurvivalMagazine.org<\/a>, and BasedUnderground.com<\/a>. The first two sites did not respond to an email from NewsGuard in November 2022, and BasedUnderground.com did not respond to a contact form submitted that month. Another site that promoted this claim, HeartlandDaily.com<\/a>, does not provide for a way to contact the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: A video shows election officials in Washington state illegally closing ballot drop boxes<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Days after Washington\u2019s Aug. 2, 2022, primary election, video surfaced of a woman driving up to a ballot box in Clark County and interacting with an election worker holding a blue bag and collecting ballots. In the video, the election worker tells the woman in her car that she can drop off her ballot in the bag or leave it in the ballot drop box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captions<\/a> of the video that were shared<\/a> on social media stated that the election worker \u201cillegally\u201d closed the ballot drop box 30 minutes prior to the 8 p.m. deadline, and cited the interaction as evidence of election wrongdoing. A July 2022 caption of the video on Twitter stated: \u201cILLEGAL: Clark County election workers closed the ballot drop boxes 30 mins prior to closing. All citizens of Washington state are granted by law to drop their ballots by 8 pm on the dot\u2026Demand a revote!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Washington state and Clark County officials told news outlets, including The Associated Press<\/a>, that the video shows an election worker providing extra ballot collection support \u2014 a standard practice under Washington\u2019s state election law \u2014 and not \u201cillegally\u201d closing a ballot drop box 30 minutes early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Secretary of State\u2019s director of external affairs, Charles Boisner, told fact-checking website Lead Stories in an Aug. 15, 2022, article<\/a>: \u201cThe election workers were doing their job staffing the drop box site to help save time and relieve congestion, especially at a busy location.\u201d Clark County Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber told Reuters<\/a> in August 2022 that starting at 7:30 p.m. on Election Night, the county instructs staff members at ballot deposit sites to gather ballots into a secured bag to allow the voting line to move more quickly. \u201cAll ballots received from the boxes and voters are placed in official bags and sealed with accountability seals before they leave the drop box location,\u201d Garber told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: House Democrats voted to allow non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 21, 2022, House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted down a Republican amendment<\/a> to a Democratic bill that would provide grants for states to distribute translated voting materials. The bill would also commission a study on the impact of making election materials more readily available and providing them in multiple languages. The proposed amendment, introduced by Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, stated that nothing in the bill should be construed as allowing non-citizens to vote in federal, state, and local elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amendment was rejected by the Judiciary Committee, with 21 Democrats opposing the proposal and 12 Republicans supporting it. Democrats said it was redundant and therefore unnecessary. The bill \u201cwould not change a single practical aspect about federal law applicable to non-citizen voting,\u201d Daniel Rubin, a Democratic aide to the Judiciary Committee, told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the vote, the Twitter account for House Judiciary Committee Republicans posted: \u201c#BREAKING: Judiciary Democrats just voted to support NON-CITIZENS voting in our elections. There\u2019s no hiding it. Democrats WANT non-citizens voting in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some conservative websites echoed the claim. For example, NOQReport.com, a site that NewsGuard has found to repeatedly publish false content, published an article stating: \u201cThe House Judiciary voted to allow non-citizens to vote\u2026.\u201d  WeLoveTrump.com stated: \u201cIn a proposed amendment to House Resolution 8770, Democrat judiciary committee members supported a measure allowing non-citizens to vote in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Democrats noted during the Sept. 21, 2022, committee meeting, federal law<\/a> currently prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections \u2014 and nothing in the proposed measure would change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NewsGuard reviewed the text of the bill<\/a> and did not find any provisions that could be fairly interpreted as allowing non-citizens to vote. The proposed bill did not address expanding voting rights for non-citizens or undocumented immigrants, and in fact, did not mention non-citizens or undocumented immigrants at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sites that promoted this claim included NOQReport.com<\/a>, AmericaFirstReport.com<\/a>, and YourNews.com<\/a>. NOQReport.com and AmericaFirstReport.com, which share an owner, did not respond to an October 2022 email from NewsGuard seeking comment on this claim. YourNews.com did not respond to a November 2022 email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: The CEO of Michigan software company Konnech was involved in a voter fraud scheme<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eugene Yu, the founder and chief executive<\/a> of Konnech, an election management software company based in East Lansing, Michigan, was arrested on Oct. 4, 2022, on suspicion of stealing Los Angeles (California) County poll workers\u2019 personal information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2020, Los Angeles County signed a five-year, $2.9 million contract with Konnech to use its election worker management system called PollChief<\/a>, which helps election administrators track poll workers\u2019 schedules, payrolls, and communications, according to the Konnech website<\/a>. While Konnech was contractually required to keep poll workers\u2019 personal information in the U.S., the Los Angeles District Attorney\u2019s Office alleged that the information was instead stored on servers in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Yu\u2019s arrest, the conspiracy-oriented websites NOQReport.com<\/a> and RedVoiceMedia.com<\/a>, among others, published an op-ed by NOQReport.com editor-in-chief J.D. Rucker that called Konnech \u201cthe company that appears to be at the heart of the voter fraud that stole the 2020 election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Los Angeles District Attorney\u2019s Office emphasized in a statement<\/a> that the data potentially stored on Chinese servers could not have impacted the result of the 2020 election. \u201cThis investigation is concerned solely with the personal identifying information of election workers,\u201d the statement said. \u201cIn this case, the alleged conduct had no impact on the tabulation of votes and did not alter election results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sites that have promoted this claim include JDRucker.Substack.com<\/a>, Treason.news<\/a>, AmericaOutLoud.com, and RedVoiceMedia.com. JDRucker.Substack.com and Treason.news both did not respond to a NewsGuard email in November 2022 and AmericaOutLoud.com did not respond to a contact form from NewsGuard in November 2022. Asked about the story on RedVoiceMedia.com, site co-owner Raymond Dietrich told NewsGuard in an October 2022 email: \u201cWe don\u2019t answer to communist fact checkers, have a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: An investigation into a Dominion error code revealed that 97% of Georgia counties miscounted ballots<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The claim originated from a little-known organization called the Election Oversight Group, whose research was cited in an Oct. 4, 2022, article by Kanekoa News<\/a>, an anonymously run digital newsletter with the tagline: \u201cInvestigative Journalism. Censored Topics. America First.\u201d Kanekoa News\u2019s article, titled \u201cBombshell Dominion \u2018Error Code\u2019 Uncovered in 97% of Georgia Counties,\u201d reported that the Election Oversight Group obtained records proving that seven ballot scanners in Williamson County, Tennessee, miscounted hundreds of ballots in a 2021 county election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Election Oversight Group learned of the so-called \u201cTennessee Error,\u201d it found that the error had occurred during 2020 and 2022 primary elections in 64 of the 66 Georgia counties for which the group was able to obtain records, according to Kanekoa News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while error codes were indeed reported in Tennessee\u2019s October 2021 election, all ballots were counted, according to a final report<\/a> and press release<\/a> on the issue by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which earlier this year investigated the alleged discrepancies. The EAC also said that the issue occurred in only one Tennessee county and did not impact the state\u2019s election results.  (The EAC is<\/a> a bipartisan, independent federal agency focused on monitoring adherence to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, according to the EAC\u2019s website.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe anomaly in Tennessee resulted in valid ballots being sorted into a provisional ballot category,\u201d the EAC stated in an April 1, 2022, press release. \u201cA real time hand-recount ensured that the election remained accurate and secure. \u2026 There are no other reports of this anomaly, aside from the isolated incident in Tennessee.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple experts also told fact-checking website LeadStories.com<\/a> in October 2022 that the error message does not mean that the results of the Georgia elections were compromised in any way. When a QR code error appears, Lead Stories reported, poll workers either rescan the ballot or count it by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MYTH: As a state senator, Katie Hobbs voted to eliminate the Pledge of Allegiance from Arizona schools<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In September 2022, Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake posted a three-minute video on Twitter<\/a>, stating that her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, previously voted to block historic U.S. documents from being taught in Arizona schools. \u201cAs a legislator, Hobbs actually voted to block the Pledge of Allegiance, our National Anthem, our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and even the Mayflower Compact from being taught to the next generation of Americans right here in Arizona,\u201d Lake said in the video. As evidence, Lake cited Hobbs\u2019s 2018 vote against a measure in the state Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous conservative websites reported on Lake\u2019s claim about Hobbs\u2019 voting record without challenging it, but the claim is false. In 2018, a bill<\/a> in Arizona was signed into law that amended the list of U.S. history materials that teachers are allowed to read or display in their classrooms. It is true that Hobbs, at the time a state senator, voted against the bill. However, under pre-existing Arizona law, that list of acceptable materials already included the Pledge of Allegiance, the National Anthem, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. Senate Bill 1289 added Arizona\u2019s state motto, \u201cDitat Deus,\u201d meaning \u201cGod Enriches,\u201d to the list. The approved list of materials that teachers can read and post in Arizona schools also already included the national motto. The bill simply proposed including the actual language of the motto \u2014 \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d \u2014 instead of just referring to it generally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NewsGuard reviewed the text of Senate Bill 1289 and found that the bill did not alter the portion of the law that already allowed teachers to read or post the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. Constitution, the National Anthem, and the Declaration of Independence. Thus, if the bill had failed, it would not have kept the Pledge of Allegiance and the other texts cited by Lake out of Arizona schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake\u2019s campaign did not respond to NewsGuard\u2019s inquiries about the matter. However, Lake defended her original claim in a Sept. 21, 2022, tweet<\/a>, stating, \u201cWe didn\u2019t put clips of all of the bills that we referred to in that video. We are referring to SB1289, SB1152 and SB1020. Between those three bills she was opposed to displaying the American flag, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake\u2019s tweet did not specify in which legislative session the two additional bills, Senate Bill 1152<\/a> and Senate Bill 1020<\/a>, originated. It appears she was referring to a bill introduced in 2011 that primarily clarified that \u201chome schools\u201d are a form of non-public education, and that made other technical changes related to the use of the U.S. founding documents in classrooms. For example, the bill proposed changing a provision stating that school districts \u201cshall purchase\u201d the founding documents to a requirement that they \u201cacquire\u201d the materials.  The other bill proposed changes to sex education in public schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither measure in any way would have prevented the teaching of the U.S. founding documents in Arizona schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sam Howard<\/a>, Lorenzo Arvanitis<\/a>, Jack Brewster<\/a>, Valerie Pavilonis,<\/a> McKenzie Sadeghi,<\/a>Andie Slomka<\/a>, and Macrina Wang<\/a> | <\/strong>Last updated: Nov. 9, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NewsGuard analysts are monitoring the spread of top myths related to this year’s U.S. midterm elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":182564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4970],"tags":[2867,4597,1419,4768,4620,289],"class_list":["post-182562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monitoraggio","tag-biden","tag-disinformation","tag-fake-news","tag-midterm-election","tag-newsguard","tag-usa"],"acf":{"share_this_post_to_edmo_website":false,"type_of_post":false,"options_for_news_post":{"":""},"options_for_event_post":{"event_start_date":null,"event_end_date":null,"event_location":"","event_programme":""},"options_for_report_post":{"post_author":"","report_type":false,"report_pdf_link":""},"options_for_investigation_post":{"post_author":""},"affiliation":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182567,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182562\/revisions\/182567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idmo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}