Fact check: What's true about the 2020 election, vote counting, Electoral College

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:

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.

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.

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.

People vote at Staples Center on Nov. 3, 2020 in Los Angeles.
People vote at Staples Center on Nov. 3, 2020 in Los Angeles.

On the outcome, past election comparisons

Fact check: Trump lost the 2020 presidential election

Analyses of the 2020 election results explain Trump's loss to Biden.

Fact check: Joe Biden has secured enough electors from certified results to be elected president

In the false map, Gateway Pundit excludes results from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. President-elect Joe Biden won all six states, and all six have certified their results.

Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims

Biden legally won the popular vote and obtained enough electoral votes to claim the win. There's no evidence of voter fraud, despite widespread, unfounded claims.

Fact check: Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton in most major metro areas

Biden received more votes than Hillary Clinton in many of the country's major metro areas. The claims that the four swing states listed are led by Democrats and that votes exceeded the number of voters registered in those states are also false.

Fact check: Biden won popular, Electoral College votes in several battleground states

The claim references unproven and falsified allegations to support statements about flipping votes in battleground states from Biden to Trump. There is no evidence to support claims of cheating, outstanding software glitches or illegal voting in the 2020 presidential election.

Fact check: Biden won the most total votes – and the fewest total counties – of any president-elect

With over 81 million votes, Biden received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history. It is also true that he won a record-low number of counties – but counties vary by population size, so those wins don't correlate with the popular vote.

Fact check: Meme is missing context, potentially misleads on support for Biden, Trump and Obama

People vote, not places, and Biden won the most populous counties in the country, according to a Census Bureau report. It's also disingenuous to suggest Biden's small campaign events indicated a lack of support, given the ongoing viral pandemic.

Fact check: Biden got record number of popular votes despite small campaign events

The Trump campaign disregarded many COVID-19 precautions and hosted large crowds, while Biden made following coronavirus guidelines central to his efforts. Biden's lack of crowds does not translate to a lack of support from voters, but rather a consistent adherence to pandemic safety guidelines.

Fact check: After endorsing him, New York Post now pushes Trump to accept Biden's victory

Based on our research, the claim that the New York Post published a cover and staff editorial urging President Trump to accept defeat is true; the items were published in print and online on Dec. 27.

Fact check: These 5 election statistics do not discredit Joe Biden's victory

Social media shared a meme with statistics that they claim discredits Joe Biden's victory. The meme compares information about former President Barack Obama in 2008 and President Donald Trump and Biden in 2020. It lists total number of votes received, includes the number of counties each candidate won; the fraction of bellwether counties each candidate won; whether they won Florida, Ohio and Iowa; and whether each candidate's political party won seats in the House of Representatives.

On calling states, certifying votes

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: Statistical analysis supporting pro-Trump Supreme Court case is 'ludicrous'

The votes still uncounted when Trump had his short-lived lead were largely absentee ballots from major cities. Those cities have consistently voted Democratic historically, and mail-in votes within them should be expected to lean even more that direction since Trump had attacked that method of voting leading up to the election while Biden encouraged it.

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.

Fact check: Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted twice on certifying election results

The board of canvassers did initially split in a 2-2 vote, officials reversed course a few hours later and certified election results in Wayne County based on the condition that a comprehensive audit be conducted on precincts with out-of-balance tallies.

Fact check: Trump lawyer Sidney Powell falsely stated he won election 'by a landslide'

Sidney Powell did make the claim that Trump won the election "by a landslide," the assertion is false. Joe Biden is the president-elect after having garnered enough electoral votes as a result of the popular vote across the country earlier this month.

Fact check: Nevada's AG did not admit to changing signature verification manually in election

The statement regarding allegations that votes were changed by a signature verification machine was made by the former attorney general of Nevada, a Republican and co-chairman of the Nevada Trump campaign, and not by current Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat.

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: Map showing Trump landslide based on false report of seized election servers in Germany

The false claim that Donald Trump received 410 electoral votes and Joe Biden received 128 is based on false reports that the U.S. Army seized servers with election information on them in a recent raid in Germany.

Fact check: Wisconsin bill does not decertify results and give Trump the win

A Wisconsin Legislature bill would prioritize legislation addressing election laws. But it says nothing related to decertification or awarding the state to Trump. And in any case, the state’s electoral votes were already cast for Biden weeks ago. The claim is false.

Fact check: False news report indicates Biden plans to step down as president-elect

A claim that President-elect Joe Biden is stepping down because of health concerns is false, the news report that makes the statement is faked.

Fact check: Trump pressured officials in Georgia to recalculate state's vote in his favor

On Jan. 3, the Washington Post broke the news of an hourlong call in which President Donald Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes." Since then, Trump has doubled down on his baseless claims of electoral fraud, while Democrats have expressed outrage.

Fact check: No, court did not rule 200,000 Wisconsin ballots were illegitimate

A Wisconsin statute allows voters to declare themselves as "indefinitely confined." They can then cast an absentee ballot without providing a photo ID, as would be required for in-person voting or a traditional absentee ballot. Trump and other Republicans have attacked this method of voting as improper. A final ruling from the state Supreme Court released Dec. 14 said it's up to each voter whether they meet the requirements for being "indefinitely confined" — not clerks or anyone else.

Voting on Nov. 3, 2020, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Voting on Nov. 3, 2020, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On voter registration, turnout

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.

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: Claim of Georgia vote spike for Biden after pipe burst at counting site is false

The pipe leak happened early in the morning of Nov. 3, while ballot counting without monitors took place Nov. 4 and was not related to the pipe incident.

Fact check: Over 159 million people voted in the US general election

The claim cites correct vote totals for Trump (74 million) and Biden (81 million), but it falsely reports the number of registered voters. More than 159 million registered voters cast ballots in the general election, out of 239 million eligible voters.

Fact check: False claim that 'fake votes' found during recount in Dane County, Wis.

The repeated initials referred to in the claim aren’t those of a voter; they’re initials of the clerk who issued the absentee ballots.

Fact check: Image from 2017 White House event altered to make claim about votes for Biden

The original image is from a 2017 event where Trump spoke about deregulation goals and cut a ribbon across stacks of paper that represented current regulations and 1960 regulations.

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: Claim that voting noncitizens affected 2020 election outcome is unverified

Voting in federal elections is reserved for U.S. citizens and few noncitizens knowingly register to vote. The claim that voter turnout from noncitizens affected the popular vote in the 2020 presidential race in battleground states is plausible but unproven.

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: Michigan townships had more registered voters than votes

The claim that four townships in Michigan logged 290,000 more votes than there are people is false. Voter turnout data shows no township in Michigan had more than 100% turnout for the 2020 presidential election. There were some cases of errors in voter turnout rates, however, the errors were fixed, and there is no evidence that four townships logged more votes than there are people.

Fact check: False claim of fraud in Arizona voter registrations

There is no proof behind the claim that 2,012 Arizona voters are registered under one address.

Election Day debunks

Fact check: Pennsylvania voters exposed to COVID-19 can still vote

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.

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

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

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.

Workers process mail-in and absentee ballots on Nov. 4 in West Chester, Pa.
Workers process mail-in and absentee ballots on Nov. 4 in West Chester, Pa.

On election technology

Fact check: Dominion Voting machines create ballots only for audits, testing

It is true that Dominion Voting machines create ballots, for testing, audits and after a voter has voted and approves the ballot creation. But assertions that machines can be hacked, votes were dumped and test ballots can be counted are false. The federal government and election experts discovered no election fraud on the part of Dominion Voting Systems or its voting machines.

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: Claims linking Dominion Voting Systems to Democrats are wrong or misleading

It is true that Nancy's Pelosi's former chief of staff is a lobbyist for Dominion Voting Systems, which supplied the election software in Michigan and other states. But Republicans have lobbying ties to Dominion, as well, making this claim partly false.

Fact check: Video claim that Dominion tech manipulated Georgia votes is false

State and local election officials and a spokesperson for Dominion explain such manipulation is not possible. Our research uncovered no evidence to support the claim.

Fact check: False claim that electronic voting software companies Dominion and Smartmatic have closed

Neither Dominion nor Smartmatic has closed in the aftermath of the election and their CEOs are not "on the run."

Fact check: A 37-vote change in Georgia was the result of human error, not vote-flipping

State and local elections officials have denied the claim and explained that a 37-vote difference was the result of a human tabulation error, not the fault of Dominion.

Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems

Archived and current versions of Dominion Voting System's logo show that the company's actual logo is a red ballot going into a red ballot box, suggesting the image in posts online is a doctored version of the authentic logo.

Fact check: School bus in Arizona was full of office equipment, not voting machines

The Buckeye Police Department confirmed that the bus contained "office equipment," not voting machines.

Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems

There is no familial relationship between Joe Biden's relatives with the last name Owens and Stephen Owens, the co-founder of a private equity firm that acquired Dominion Voting Systems in 2018.

Fact check: Hugo Chávez's family does not own Dominion Voting Systems

Hugo Chávez did not found Dominion Voting Systems, nor does his family own a stake of the company. Dominion was founded in Canada in 2003 and its majority owner is Staple Street Capital, which is based in New York.

Claims of discarded, destructed ballots

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.

Poll workers count absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center on Nov. 3.
Poll workers count absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center on Nov. 3.

On absentee, early voting

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: Alleged ‘backdated’ ballots wouldn’t have been counted even if USPS claim true

Absentee ballots had to be received by the time polls closed on Election Day to be counted, and all state election results were reported by the early morning hours of Nov. 4. Pease’s claims relate to actions allegedly taken Nov. 4 and 5. Whatever happened to ballots then, no one was going to count and include them, so this claim is missing context.

Fact check: Woman in Indiana charged with modifying absentee ballot applications, not mail-in ballots

Reed was arrested for modifying 300 absentee ballot applications, not 400 ballots, that signed voters up for the Democratic primary without their consent during the June 2020 primary. Election officials were aware of the matter and were able to send voters new applications. No candidates were pre-marked, as the posts claim.

Fact check: Pennsylvania mail-in ballot claim mixes primary, general election data

Numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of State show that over 2.6 million mail in ballots had been counted and over 3 million voters requested mail ballots by the Oct. 27 deadline. The false figure used in the claim originates from the number of mail in ballots requested for the Pennsylvania primary election or the number of registered Democrats that requested a mail ballot.

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.

Workers process ballots Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 at the City of Milwaukee Central Count Facility, 501 W. Michigan Ave. in Milwaukee, Wis. Split into three shifts, tabulators are positioned in pods of around 50 people to limit the amount of interaction among the hundreds working there because of the coronavirus.
Workers process ballots Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 at the City of Milwaukee Central Count Facility, 501 W. Michigan Ave. in Milwaukee, Wis. Split into three shifts, tabulators are positioned in pods of around 50 people to limit the amount of interaction among the hundreds working there because of the coronavirus.

On poll workers, challengers and electors

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: Federal Election Commission chair echoes false claims of fraud

The quotes from FEC Chair Trey Trainor are real and came from an interview with Newsmax. But he's not the "top boss of all the election officials," and the FEC's jurisdiction isn't related to vote counting or election security — only campaign finances. The post's claims are partly false, true only in that Trainor expressed his opinion about the election.

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.

Poll workers take an oath before counting absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.
Poll workers take an oath before counting absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.

Claims of dead voters

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.

On 'Sharpiegate,' Ukraine, Italy

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.

Fact check: No connection between Biden victory, Ukraine

Various iterations of conspiracy theories alleging wrongdoing on the part of Joe Biden in Ukraine have been investigated and debunked. Claims that the 2020 presidential election was the result of corruption are also false.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: What's true about 2020 election, vote counts, certification