When it comes to political images, seeing shouldn’t always be believing. Case in point is an image recently tweeted by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that is misleadingly presented to make his polling advantage over Republican rival David Perdue appear larger than it actually is in a hypothetical general election matchup with Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.
The Georgia secretary of state’s office is investigating a conservative watchdog group’s claims of illegal “ballot harvesting” in the state during the November 2020 general election and a special election runoff in January 2021. But the pending investigation is not evidence that “widespread illegal ballot harvesting” elected Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators, as a conservative super PAC’s TV ad claims.
After pulling its All-Star game out of Georgia because of the state’s new voting law, Major League Baseball picked Colorado for its summer classic — setting off an error-filled debate over which state has more restrictive voting laws.
Online posts falsely claim that there was fraud in the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, but the only evidence they offer are clips of election night newscasts that corrected two data-entry errors.
We recap the facts behind the claims made in some of the many attack ads released by the campaigns and outside groups in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections.
A TV ad from Republican Sen. David Perdue’s campaign claims a supposed “China scandal” involving his challenger, Democrat Jon Ossoff, “keeps getting worse.” But it’s the distortions of the facts that are getting worse, not any “scandal.”
A Democratic super PAC cherry-picks from huge appropriations bills that Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue opposed in order to accuse him of trying to increase his own pay while rejecting pay increases for the military.
Facebook posts have repeated a false claim about a “one in a quadrillion” chance that President-elect Joe Biden received more votes than President Donald Trump in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Experts told us the claim misuses a questionable statistical analysis that made implausible assumptions about the 2020 election.
A TV ad from Democrat Raphael Warnock falsely says Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler “supports raising taxes on Georgia’s middle class.”
Viral posts falsely claim that Dominion voting machines were “seized” in Ware County, Georgia, and that votes were found to have been “switched” for Joe Biden. No such seizure occurred and there was no such finding, according to local and state election officials. Trump handily won the county with 70% of the vote.