Collection

The 2020 Election Collection: Fact-Checking the Presidential Race

In the aftermath of the Election Day 2020 and the days of counting that followed, misinformation ran free. We were there.

by Brandon Echter, Sept. 25, 2020


Image courtesy of Joseph Prezioso / AFP


The voting is done. Misinformation is flourishing.

As the internet's premier fact-checking site, we've been gauging the truth behind the candidates' claims since the beginning of the race (see a collection of fact checks involving Trump here and Biden here), as well as rumors about the voting process and what Americans can expect in this historic election. And on Election Day itself, we checked misinformation as it was happening.

Now, we've got new fact checks to combat misinformation about the election's results. We introduced "rumor alerts" to warn readers where they should tread lightly. We use those posts to send up a flare about rumors/misinformation for which we may not have enough information for a complete fact check with a truth rating, but that we want to warn audiences about anyway.

Check out all our new fact checks and coverage below.


By Brandon Echter

trump campaign emails

Those Trump Campaign 'Election Defense' Emails, Fact-Checked

Nov. 20, 2020

After Joe Biden was announced the 46th U.S. president, the Trump campaign sent supporters dozens ...

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What Happens If Donald Trump Doesn't Concede?

Nov. 6, 2020

No U.S. presidential candidate in modern history has refused to acknowledge defeat.

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Does Loser.com Redirect to Trump's Wikipedia Page?

Nov. 11, 2020

This isn't the first time that Trump has been targeted by Loser.com.

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Was the 'Nevada Poll Worker' Interviewed by Ingraham Actually Trump Himself?

Nov. 10, 2020

Laura Ingraham interviewed a Nevada poll worker, face and voice masked, who claimed to have witn ...

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Did Republican Dean Browning Tweet 'I'm a Black Gay Guy'?

Nov. 10, 2020

Twitter users believed the tweet was meant to go out via an alternate, fake account to bolster s ...

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Did Biden Create 'Office of the President Elect' To Undermine Trump?

Nov. 10, 2020

Not everything U.S. President-elect Joe Biden does is a scheme against the current president.

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Are 132K Ballots in Georgia Likely Ineligible?

Nov. 10, 2020

This appeared to be an example of what we'll call a "misinformation ouroboros" endless loop.

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Did Trump Promise 'Tremendous Stimulus Package Immediately After the Election'?

Nov. 10, 2020

The IRS sent out the first payments in April 2020, and American families have been awaiting word ...

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Did Trump Write 'Never Admit Defeat' in 'Art of the Deal'?

Nov. 10, 2020

While President Trump may never admit defeat, he did not write that in "The Art of the Deal."

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Did Real Clear Politics Take Penn. 'Away' From Biden After Lawsuit News?

Nov. 10, 2020

It is challenging to take something away that was never given in the first place.

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Was Trump First US President To Lose Popular Vote, Get Impeached, Then Lose Reelection?

Nov. 9, 2020

The 45th president made history, both good and bad, in the 2020 election.

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Is There a 'Hammer and Scorecard' Operation to Manipulate Vote Counts?

Nov. 9, 2020

The director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) called the rumo ...

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Does Biden Want Fraudulent Ballots To Count in the 2020 Election?

Nov. 9, 2020

The baseless claim suggests the president-elect has ordered elections workers nationwide to brea ...

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Did Trump's Legal Team Hold a News Conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping?

Nov. 9, 2020

Questions swirled over whether the wrong Four Seasons was the site of the conference.

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Was Biden's Hat a Response to Trump's MAGA Slogan?

Nov. 9, 2020

Internet sleuths think the president-elect is trolling Trump with a “We Just Did” hat.

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Will Biden's Dog Major Be the First Rescue Dog in the White House?

Nov. 9, 2020

After four years without a White House pet, many were curious about the president-elect’s canine ...

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Did Church Bells Ring in Paris to Celebrate Biden's Election Win?

Nov. 9, 2020

Not all seemingly celebratory gestures in November 2020 were intended to herald the results of a ...

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Is Joe Biden's Dog Unusually Big?

Nov. 9, 2020

The U.S. president-elect's dog is definitely not small.

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RUMOR ALERT: Dominion Voting Systems Fraud Claims

Nov. 8, 2020

Isolated incidents that were quickly rectified were used to imply widespread voter fraud was occ ...

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Was a 'President Gore' Headline Published by Washington Times in 2000?

Nov. 8, 2020

Beware of headlines from an alternative history.

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Will Kamala Harris Be the First POC as Vice President?

Nov. 8, 2020

Kamala Harris will be the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as vice president, b ...

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Was the Ballot of Deceased Man Named William Bradley Counted in Michigan?

Nov. 7, 2020

During the 2020 presidential contest, false information on the internet spread faster than facts.

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Does Searching for 'Loser' on Twitter Return Trump's Account?

Nov. 7, 2020

Search algorithms linking controversial politicians to derogatory words is a not uncommon phenom ...

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Was Trump Golfing When the 2020 Presidential Election Was Called?

Nov. 7, 2020

On an historic day in America, rumors held that the incumbent president spent the key moment on ...

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Did Libertarian Candidate Jo Jorgensen Lose 40K Votes in 10 Minutes in Pennsylvania?

Nov. 6, 2020

And if so, where did they go?

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Did DHS Secretly Watermark Ballots in an Election Fraud Sting Against Dems?

Nov. 6, 2020

Discussing election mechanics is easier when you actually know how elections work.

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Do Hundreds of Counties Have 1.8 Million 'Ghost Voters' in the US?

Nov. 6, 2020

A study published by the activist legal group Judicial Watch used two different types of data to ...

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Did Bannon Say He'd Put Fauci's and FBI Director Wray's 'Heads on Pikes'?

Nov. 6, 2020

The podcaster and Breitbart executive has been described as a "Trump loyalist."

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Can State Legislatures Override the Choice of Presidential Electors?

Nov. 6, 2020

The electoral college is a unique system for indirectly electing the president of the United States.

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Is Trump Campaign Auto-Checking A "Recurring Donation" Option That Ends in December?

Nov. 6, 2020

The campaign website, until recently, had been accepting recurring donations up until Election Day.

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Was a 'Stop The Steal' Facebook Group Renamed 'Gay Communists for Socialism'?

Nov. 6, 2020

The group had gained well over 64,000 members in its brief 24 hours of existence.

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Do Ballot Envelopes Reveal the Party of the Voter?

Aug. 20, 2020

A widely seen video posted to Facebook raised fears about election tampering.

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Does This Video Show a PA Elections Worker Filling Out Ballots?

Nov. 6, 2020

A video shared on Twitter purported to catch ballot counters in Pennsylvania in the act of commi ...

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This Video Does Not Show a Ballot Box Being Sneaked Into a Detroit Counting Facility

Nov. 6, 2020

Even the most innocuous actions can be made to seem sinister when presented with a healthy heap ...

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Was a Pornhub Logo Accidentally Displayed on CNN?

Nov. 6, 2020

This video has racked up more than 7 million views.

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Did Jared Kushner Delete Tweets After News Surfaced About Trump's Taxes?

Sept. 28, 2020

It's decidedly difficult to remove something that never existed.

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Was the 2020 US Presidential Election Winner Announced Yet?

Nov. 7, 2020

For days, the world waited to see who American voters want to serve as the 46th president of the ...

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Snopes Fact-Checks the 2020 US Election, Live

Nov. 5, 2020

Lies don't wait — and neither does Snopes.

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The 2020 Election Collection: Fact-Checking the Presidential Race

Sept. 25, 2020

Claims, hoaxes, and misinformation abound. Snopes investigates the claims of the 2020 U.S. Election.

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