Obama Foundation Doesn't Own 82 of Mail-in Ballot Printers
The Claim
The Obama Foundation owns 82% of mail-in ballot printers.
News posted on
Emerging story
In June 2020, the website Obamawatcher published an article stating that the Obama Foundation owned and operated printers responsible for printing 82% of mail-in ballots in the U.S.
Users across social media continued to push this claim in October 2020, all from the same source.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar found that the article is clearly satire. The article states: “Nearly 82% of all American mail-in ballots are printed by ‘Smoovy-G’ class 5 dot-matrix replicators… All of which are owned and operated by the Obama Foundation.”
The article then lists fictional cities where the ballots are being produced, such as: Baggertits, Ohio, Queefgas Swamp, Florida, and Laniasnatch, Colorado. These locations are fictional.
The “About Us” page for the Obamawatcher website lists itself as being satirical in nature, stating: “Obamawatcher.com is a subsidiary of the ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News.”
The site then lists in its “About Satire” section: “Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with ‘comedy’: sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site’s pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you’re still having an issue with that satire thing.”
Additionally, The Obama Foundation site has no mention of owning these printers.
