Fake Votes Weren't Found in Wisconsin
The Claim
Thousands of fraudulent votes were found in Dane County, Wisconsin.
News posted on
Emerging story
In November 2020, the website called The Gateway Pundit published an article with a headline that read: “BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: THOUSANDS of fake votes found at Wisconsin Recount in Dane County – Photos and Report from GOP Observer.”
Users across social media continued to spread this claim.
Misbar’s Analysis
The Misbar team has determined the claim is false. The article, which was shared widely across social media, shows a picture of a ballot with “MLW” used as the initials to highlight that they are “fake votes.” It turns out that the “MLW” initials are actually placed under a section titled “Absentee ballot issued by.” The clerk in Madison county who initialed the ballots is Maribeth L. Witzel-Behl, or MLW as initials.
Shortly after this error in reporting was revealed, the Gateway Pundit changed the headline of the article to read: “BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: THOUSANDS of Suspect Votes Found at Wisconsin Recount in Dane County — Photos and Report from GOP Observer — Updated.”
There is no record of the votes being suspect, and the article mentioned above changed the headline of the story to avoid blatant disinformation. As such, we label the claim as false.
