NewsGuard’s Pre-Election Misinformation Guide
Everything you need to know to spot misinformation as it spreads on Nov. 5 and beyond
Welcome to Reality Check, your inside look at how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
Special Edition: NewsGuard’s Pre-Election Misinformation Guide
Today:
Recycled myths: The false narratives bound to resurface on Election Day (or week? or month?)
Watch out for these superspreaders of election-related misinformation
Be your own fact-checker: The tools we use to debunk election-related misinformation
Liberal-backed “pink slime” news outlet launches major ad blitz ahead of 2024 election
And more …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Jack Brewster, Eric Effron, and Sofia Rubinson.
ALSO: Introducing NewsGuard’s voter fraud misinformation hotline: If you come across a post or article making a questionable claim about voter fraud, text it to us at 802-277-6202, preferably with a link to the claim. We’ll investigate.
NewsGuard’s Tally of Pre-Election Online Hoaxes:
In 2020: Five false claims were identified by NewsGuard prior to the election
In 2024: 68 false claims identified by NewsGuard before Election Day. Of these, 16 (23 percent) originated with Russian, Iranian, or Chinese disinformation sources
The five 2020 election-related myths identified by NewsGuard prior to Election Day 2020:
Democrats promised violence — in the form of a coup or civil war — unless Joe Biden won the presidential election
Poll watching is always illegal and amounts to voter intimidation or voter suppression
President Donald Trump put secret watermarks on “official” ballots to trick Democrats, by showing that ballots they cast were unofficial and illegitimate
Democrats support “ballot harvesting,” the practice in which political operatives are paid to collect ballots from vulnerable people like the elderly and disabled, and change the person’s vote so that it supports the political operative’s party
Republicans won’t certify election results
These claims from 2020 seem quaint compared to this season’s wild claims: That Democrats and U.S. intelligence agencies have plans to assassinate Trump allies after the 2024 election; that the World Economic Forum plans to inject 30 million fake ballots into the 2024 election; that Tim Walz sexually abused students in both Nebraska and Minnesota; and that Trump sat on a towel during a Fox News interview due to incontinence.
BUT FIRST:
Misinformation Quiz: Want to see how well you can distinguish fact from fiction? Select whether you think this narrative is real or fake to test your misinformation spotting skills. Scroll to the bottom to see if you were correct with NewsGuard’s fact check!
1. Oldies But Goodies: False Claims You Can Expect to See Again (and Again, and Again, and Again)
By Sam Howard and Jack Brewster
It’s deja vu, all over again. Here’s a look at some of the most recycled election-related narratives — and the facts you need to see through them.
Context: The list below is an exercise in what’s known as prebunking. Prebunking means getting ahead of misinformation by addressing claims before they spread — equipping people with the information they need to spot and debunk false claims right from the start.
A. Election Machines Switch Votes
The claim: Election machines flip votes from one candidate to another, proving widespread fraud.
The spread: This claim emerged prominently following the 2020 election, when sites including LifeZette.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 32/100) and NaturalNews.com (Trust Score: 5/100) falsely suggested that voting tech company Dominion Voting Systems had flipped votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
Similar false narratives are already resurfacing in 2024, with social media users claiming that election machines in Georgia and Texas are flipping votes from one candidate to another.
The debunk: In Georgia and Texas, election officials reported these cases as voter error. In both instances, the voters noticed that the printed ballot they received after voting online did not match how they intended to vote, so the ballots were voided and the voter re-cast their votes.
B. Dead People Can Vote
The claim: Ballots are being cast on behalf of deceased voters, proving widespread fraud.
The spread: In 2020, CharlieKirk.com (Trust Score: 10/100) and TheHayride.com (Trust Score: 22.5/100) claimed that deceased voters had cast ballots in Michigan. While this claim has yet to take off to the same extent this year, there is already baseless speculation on X about ballots corresponding to dead voters swinging the election to Democrats.
The debunk: In 2020, no evidence ever emerged proving that there were significant numbers of ballots cast on behalf of deceased Michigan residents.
Michigan’s Secretary of State’s office issued a statement in November 2020 affirming that the state checks all ballots against death records, so any vote cast in the name of a dead person would be invalidated.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced in February 2023 that her office investigated reports of votes cast in 2020 on behalf of dead people and found no evidence in support of the claims.
This year: The system to void ballots from deceased voters seems to be working. The Associated Press reported on Oct. 28 that a woman in northern Minnesota was arrested for allegedly attempting to cast a mail-in ballot on behalf of her dead mother — an “ardent” Trump supporter, according to the daughter. Itasca County Attorney Jake Fauchald said in the AP report that the ineligible ballot “was flagged almost immediately.”
C. Noncitizens Vote
The claim: Noncitizens are voting in large numbers, proving widespread fraud.
The spread: NewsGuard has already debunked 13 claims related to noncitizen voting in the federal election in the U.S. this year.
Among them: Claims that South Carolina provided refugees with voter registration forms; that undocumented immigrants can get driver’s licenses that enable them to vote in Florida; and that undocumented immigrants can register as “federal only” voters in Arizona. All these claims are false.
The debunk: There is no evidence that noncitizens are voting in significant numbers. Voters must have citizenship to vote in U.S. federal elections.
Multiple state reviews have found that relatively few noncitizens have registered to vote. Last week, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a news conference that his office recently audited the state’s voter rolls and found just 20 non-citizens were registered to vote, out of the state’s population of 11 million people.
The Washington Post (Trust Score: 100/100) previously reviewed a database from the conservative Heritage Foundation of purported instances of election fraud, which found just 85 cases where a non-citizen was accused of voting between 2002 and 2023.
Become a Reality Check Member and Get These Exclusive Benefits
Want to get smarter about misinformation? Become a Reality Check Member today and you'll get:
A free copy of the definitive book on the misinformation crisis, The Death of Truth by bestselling author Steven Brill ($30 value)
Exclusive members-only content and digital briefings
Free access to NewsGuard's browser extension that shows reliability ratings for 10K+ news sites right in your browser ($25 value)
2. Warning: These Sites and Accounts are the Most Egregious Spreaders of Election Misinformation
By Sofia Rubinson and Zack Fishman
The same websites and people often reappear as spreaders of election misinformation. Below is a list of the top three spreaders of election-related myths (both websites and social media accounts) based on NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints database of 1,688 provably false claims.
Websites
John Mark Dougan Network (Trust Score: 7.5/100)
This network, which includes 171 websites with Russian ties masquerading as local and national news outlets — with names like Chicago Chronicle and DC Weekly — apparently orchestrated by Russian disinformation operative John Mark Dougan, has published 179 articles advancing false election claims, including:
The false claim that Tim Walz “groomed” a former foreign exchange student from Kazakhstan in 2004. NewsGuard reported that there is no record of a student from Kazakhstan participating in a foreign exchange program at Walz’s Minnesota school district that year.
In response to NewsGuard’s comment request, Dougan said: “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just a simple IT worker going about my day today life [sic]. Well, except for the exception of the Kazakstan [sic] man who came forward again [sic] Walz. And, I believe him, his documents and his host family. Which is why I made the decision to appear with him in a podcast.”
TheGatewayPundit.com (Trust Score: 30/100)
The Gateway Pundit, a conservative news site, has published 84 articles advancing election-related false narratives. Among them:
The false claim that South Carolina in 2024 provided refugees with voter registration forms. In fact, an image that was said to show a voter registration form provided to a refugee was instead a form used by government assistance recipients to decline registering to vote, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
BeforeItsNews.com (Trust Score: 0/100)
BeforeItsNews.com is a conspiracy-oriented website that has published 29 articles advancing false election-related claims. Among them:
The false claim that voting machines in Tarrant County, Texas, are flipping votes during 2024 early voting. There is no evidence for this claim, and the Tarrant County Elections Administration said it has “no reason to believe that votes are being switched by the voting system.”
Social Media Accounts
X user @akafacehots
This X account, run by former Arizona State University eSports player Stefan Anderson, has published 12 posts advancing false election narratives. Among them:
The false claim that Kamala Harris had a coke addiction and smuggled a bag of cocaine into the White House. In fact, this claim is baseless and appears to be part of a Russian disinformation effort.
X user @DC_Draino
The X account for conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley has published 11 posts advancing election-related false narratives, including:
The false claim that Dominion voting machines in Whitfield County, Georgia, are flipping votes. State and local election officials confirmed that the incident cited as evidence for this claim was caused by user error.
X user @catturd2
This X account is run by Floridian Phillip Buchanan and has published 10 posts advancing false election claims. They include:
The false claim that a high absentee-ballot return rate in Detroit in mid-October 2024 is evidence of voter fraud. In fact, election officials said that Detroit’s relatively high return rate for mail-in ballots is explained by the city’s new voting processes, and that traditionally conservative parts of the state experienced similarly high return rates.
The websites and social media accounts mentioned, with the exception of Dougan, did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
2024 U.S. Election Misinformation Monitoring Center
Our team of analysts is keeping you up to date as we cover misinformation surrounding this year’s U.S. presidential election. See below for the latest misinformation claims we’ve identified, and visit NewsGuard’s 2024 U.S. Election Misinformation Monitoring Center for detailed debunks of each claim.
MYTH: A whistleblower said the World Economic Forum plans to inject 30 million fake ballots into the 2024 U.S. presidential election
MYTH: A local Pennsylvania television station shared presidential election results in October 2024, which is proof of fraud
MYTH: Democrats and U.S. intelligence agencies have plans to assassinate many Donald Trump allies after the 2024 election
MYTH: Fraudulent voter registration forms were submitted in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
MYTH: A video shows ineligible voters cutting in line to cast ballots in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
MYTH: Tim Walz said he and Kamala Harris would help make Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the House Speaker if they win in 2024
MYTH: Michigan attempted to count up to 168,000 duplicate ballots in the 2024 election
3. Brand Victims of the Week: Ads for BJ’s Wholesale, Cisco, Square, Norton LifeLock, Domino Sugar, Proactiv, and Others Fund False Claim that 10 to 27 Percent of Noncitizens are Registered Voters
In this Reality Check feature, NewsGuard identifies global brands that support the spread of misinformation by unintentionally funneling programmatic advertising dollars to sites that repeatedly peddle false claims. Unless advertisers use inclusion or exclusion lists to place their programmatic ads, these ads will appear on websites regardless of their trustworthiness.
This week: A NewsGuard analyst based in the U.S. was shown programmatic ads for BJ’s Wholesale, Cisco, Square, Norton LifeLock, Domino Sugar, Proactiv, 1-800 Flowers, and Ferrara Candy Company on an article, titled “Millions of Non-Citizens Plan to Vote in 2024 Election, Study Finds,” published by SlayNews.com (Trust Score: 0/100). SlayNews.com is a conservative news site that has repeatedly advanced false or egregiously misleading claims about U.S. politics and health. The October 2024 article claimed that a May 2024 study proved that 10 to 27 percent of U.S. noncitizens are illegally registered to vote. Political scientists say the underlying data used in the study have significant methodological flaws, and the available evidence shows it is extremely rare for noncitizens to be registered to vote. The conservative Heritage Foundation found 85 cases where a non-citizen was accused of voting between 2002 and 2023.
Representatives for BJ’s Wholesale, Cisco, Square, Norton LifeLock, Domino Sugar, Proactiv, 1-800 Flowers, and Ferrara Candy Company did not immediately respond to NewsGuard’s emailed requests for comment.
(Disclosure: NewsGuard is among the companies that license data that would help advertisers only advertise on reliable, brand suitable news sites.)
If you see something, say something
If you see or hear something that you think may be provably false, please alert NewsGuard via realitycheck@newsguardtech.com and we'll do our best to get to the bottom of it. Note: Tips should not include content that you simply disagree with, however strongly.
4. Fact-Check Like a Pro: Tools to Spot Election Misinformation
By Jack Brewster and Sofia Rubinson
At NewsGuard, we use many tools to spot and debunk misinformation as it spreads. Here are some of our favorites:
A. Detecting for AI-generated Images and Videos
The tool: True Media
What it does: TrueMedia is a free tool designed to identify deepfakes on social media platforms. Users can paste a URL of a social media post (from platforms like X, TikTok, Instagram, and more) to quickly verify if a video or image has been manipulated.
B. Finding the Original Source of an Image
The tools: TinEye and Google reverse image search
What they do: TinEye and Google provide free tools that search across websites and social media platforms for images. Users can paste the URL of an image or upload a file to track where else it has appeared on the Internet, which is a good way to determine if an image has been published by a reputable source.
C. Finding Usernames Across Multiple Platforms
The tool: WhatsMyName
What it does: WhatsMyName is a free tool that lets users quickly search for a username across multiple websites and platforms, helping identify where that account is active online. This is particularly useful when an account is anonymous, because that account may not be anonymous on another platform.
D. Finding Published Articles Debunking Emerging Narratives
The tool: Google Fact Check Explorer
What it does: Google offers a free search engine that aggregates articles from fact-checking organizations that publish their findings to the public and allows users to search for keywords and images to find published debunks.
E. Finding Archived Versions of Webpages
The tools: Wayback Machine and Archive.today
What they do: The Wayback Machine and Archive.today are free online archives that capture snapshots of webpages over time, allowing users to verify past information and to see if a page has been edited or deleted. Wayback Machine is useful for tracking changes to articles over time, while Archive.today works well for social media posts.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
5. One More Thing … Watch Out for More Pink Slime: Liberal Dark Money News Outlet Triples Social Media Ad Spending Ahead of 2024 U.S. Elections
What happened: Courier Newsroom, a prominent liberal pink slime network, has spent $8.46 million on hyper partisan political ads that advance Democratic objectives ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections. This is an apparent attempt to exploit social media platforms’ ad-targeting tools to sway voters in key battleground states.
Context: The goal is to make these ads look like they are promoting legitimate news stories from independent news sites rather than “news” published by the partisan pink slime network. Pink slime websites pose as independent local news outlets but are secretly funded by partisan groups, without disclosing their backers. The term refers to the unlabeled meat filler added to ground beef products.
Courier is a U.S.-based liberal network that launched numerous websites ahead of the 2024 elections, positioning them as local news outlets without disclosing their partisan funding, including in Nevada, New Hampshire, Texas, and Florida. Courier has operated websites in key states since at least 2020, including in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
A closer look: NewsGuard analyzed Courier Newsroom’s political ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22, 2024. During this period, the group spent $7.33 million on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s Ad Library — more than triple the $2.33 million it spent during the same period in 2022, as previously reported by NewsGuard.
On Facebook and Instagram, most of the 2024 spending focused on three battleground states: Pennsylvania ($1.92 million), North Carolina ($1.72 million), and Michigan ($1.30 million), with ads promoting liberal candidates and sharply criticizing Republicans.
For example, one ad that cost Courier $15,000 and was seen by 300,000 voters in Pennsylvania said that Democratic Attorney General candidate Eugene DePasquale “has promised to never prosecute a woman for having an abortion,” while Republican candidate Dave Sunday “has continually danced around questions” on abortion.
It’s not just Facebook: In 2024, Courier Newsroom spent $1.12 million on Snapchat political ads, a tenfold increase from its 2022 spending of $108,000, NewsGuard found.
Courier uses Snapchat “to reach key groups of younger Americans left behind by traditional news,” an unabashed spokesperson, Danielle Strasburger, told NOTUS.org.
The ads on Facebook and Instagram contained no disclosure of Courier’s partisan funding; they simply stated they were “paid for by Courier Newsroom.”
On Snapchat, the ads provided even less transparency, showing only the outlet’s username in small print.
Misinformation Quiz Answer: Truth!
The Colorado Secretary of State's office unintentionally uploaded a spreadsheet to its website that included a hidden tab with passwords for the state’s voting systems. These passwords are one element of a multi-layered security framework protecting Colorado's voting machines.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s office told 9News.com (Trust Score: 100/100) in an October 2024 statement, “The Department took immediate action as soon as it was aware of this and informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).” The spokesperson added: “There are two unique passwords for every election equipment component, which are kept in separate places and held by different parties. Passwords can only be used with physical in-person access to a voting system.”
Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold told 9News in an October 2024 segment: “This is not a security threat. … We have layers of security, and out of just an abundance of caution, have staff in the field changing passwords, looking at access logs and looking at the entire situation and continuing our investigation.”
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
We launched Reality Check after seeing how much interest there is in our work beyond the business and tech communities that we serve. Subscribe to this newsletter to support our apolitical mission to counter misinformation for readers, brands, and democracies. Have feedback? Send us an email: realitycheck@newsguardtech.com.