Category: Fact Check

An Aldi supermarkets employment ad has some conservatives complaining on social media that it shows the German-owned discount grocer is no longer hiring white people.

A woman in a Feb. 4 Instagram video said, “Guys, you missed it. Aldi is hiring everybody but white people.”

As evidence of her claim, the woman read from a LinkedIn job listing Jobs for Humanity posted for a national procurement specialist that read:

“Jobs for Humanity is partnering with Aldi to build an inclusive and just employment ecosystem. Therefore, we prioritize individuals coming from the following communities: Refugee, Neurodivergent, Single Parent, Blind or Low Vision, Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Military Veterans, the Elderly, the LGBTQ, and Justice Impacted individuals. This position is open to candidates who reside in and have the legal right to work in the country where the job is located.”

The woman also read from a separate job search page on Aldi’s website that discussed diversity, equity and inclusion at the company. These efforts aim to diversify workforces by including underrepresented groups, such as ethnic minorities, older people and LGBTQ+ people. 

High-profile conservatives have criticized the job ad on social media. Libs of TikTok, for example, wrote on X that Aldi “will prioritize everyone except straight white people.” X owner Elon Musk replied to the post, writing, “racism is racism, no matter who it is directed at.”

Jobs for Humanity’s website says the company’s goal is “connecting historically underrepresented talent to welcoming employers.” The website further says that millions of people in groups such as visually impaired workers, single mothers and refugees “face a disproportionate lack of opportunity in the job market.”

“Jobs for Humanity is an employment platform dedicated to providing accessible job opportunities for everyone, regardless of ethnicity,” Roy Baladi, the company’s co-founder, said.

Baladi said Jobs for Humanity coaches job seekers; creates job boards for groups such as neurodivergent people or single parents; trains recruiters on topics such as creating accessible career pages for visually impaired people; and promotes inclusive interview processes to minimize potential biases.

Aldi did not answer our request for comment, but Baladi said his company, not Aldi, wrote the job ad in the Instagram post. Aldi  hires candidates who answer the ad, not Jobs for Humanity.

Job postings on Aldi’s LinkedIn page do not contain the language in the Instagram post, but do include language such as “ALDI is committed to equal opportunity for all employees and applicants,” language that is typically seen in many job ads.

On Aldi’s webpage about diversity, equity and inclusion, the company said it seeks  “an employee base that better represents the communities we serve, which means retaining a more diverse population of candidates at all levels of the company.”

Baladi said the claim that Aldi is not hiring white people is false, and that Jobs for Humanity does not discriminate.

“We are not discriminatory in any way and have successfully placed at least 100 individuals who may identify as caucasian in jobs,” Baladi said, referring to overall job placements. “We never intended to imply anyone is excluded, and we have refined the language in our job advertisements to reflect this commitment to inclusivity.”

The language change was not in response to the conservatives’ criticism of the Aldi ad, but to similar feedback his organization received from people who said they felt excluded by the agency’s language, Baladi said.

Jobs for Humanity lists no current job openings for Aldi on its website or LinkedIn page, but other ads we found on its LinkedIn page have language that reads, “Jobs for Humanity is partnering with Nielsen to build an inclusive and just employment ecosystem. Therefore, we prioritize individuals coming from all walks of life.” However, other listings on its LinkedIn pages have language similar to the Aldi ad.

Diversity efforts under fire

Some conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, have recently criticized companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts arguing these efforts are discriminatory and that hiring should hinge on merit. 

In July, 13 Republican attorneys general sent a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs that warned the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action in college admissions in June should be a warning to every employer about factoring race in hiring decisions. The letter asked the executives to “immediately cease any unlawful race-based quotas or preferences your company has adopted for its employment and contracting practices.”

Twenty-one Democratic attorneys general responded with their own letter, urging companies not to be intimidated into ceasing DEI efforts.

What experts say

Most employment law experts we spoke with said the Jobs for Humanity ad isn’t proof that Aldi is not hiring white people. But some of the experts called the ad’s language problematic and said it could be used against Aldi in a discrimination lawsuit.

“The ad by itself does not prove that Aldi is not hiring white people,” City University of New York School of Law professor Rick Rossein told PolitiFact in an email. But, he said, “It could be offered as circumstantial evidence as proof of discrimination because of race.”

Rossein pointed to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The EEOC website, in a section on job advertisements, said it’s illegal for a job ad to show a preference for or discourage people from applying because of race.

Three of the 12 categories the ad said would be prioritized, were race-specific: Black, Asian and Hispanic. The other nine categories — including elderly people and military veterans — could include whites or any other ethnic group, experts said.

Phyllis Towzey, a Florida employment lawyer, said the Aldi ad is seeking applicants from a wide range of groups that are underrepresented in the workforce. She said it’s an example of diversity recruiting and aims to ensure all candidates have a fair shot.

“The ad does not suggest that white people should not apply or will not be hired,” Towzey said.

UCLA law professor Noah Zatz said “many of the groups listed undoubtedly are majority white, so the idea that the ad implies not hiring white people is plainly wrong.” 

University of Arizona law professor Christopher Griffin also said he sees nothing in the job posting that shows white people won’t be hired. He pointed to language at the bottom of the job posting in which Aldi stated its nondiscrimination policy and wrote, “We do not discriminate based on race” and other factors.

“Statements of preference in employment, whether or not they are legally valid, tend not to categorically exclude groups protected by state and federal law,” Griffin said. “Simply stated, prioritization is not the same thing as exclusion.”

Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Richard Gonzalez said discrimination lawsuits hinge largely on intent. And, he said, litigants increasingly use DEI language such as this as evidence of an “intent to favor minorities.” 

Texas A&M University law professor Michael Green seized on the ad’s use of the word “prioritize.”

The ad is “not proof of a negative,” he said, but “if litigation ensued, they might have to explain what (the word prioritize) meant and that it did not involve considering those priorities based on race to the detriment of other candidates not of those races. That would be race discrimination.”

Several social media posts are using a hot mic moment between Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Joe Biden to suggest the men were plotting to delay needed reforms and blame Republicans.

“BREAKING: Chuck Schumer caught on hot mic,” read text on a video shared Feb. 29 on Instagram. “I know I can blame REPUBLICANS AND MAGA, I’m a pro.”

The video shows Schumer and Biden talking at an airport. Subtitles claim Schumer asked Biden for a delay so he can “show one particular donor I’m delaying reform” before saying he can blame Republicans and Trump supporters. It’s not clear in the video what reform they are supposedly discussing.

It’s also unclear where the subtitled video originated, but we found multiple examples of people sharing it across social media.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

(Instagram screenshot)

The first sign the exchange may not be real is that the Instagram video’s audio is muddy and drowned out by engine noise. 

A Wall Street Journal logo is visible in the video’s upper right-hand corner. We found that video in a Google search. It showed that Schumer and Biden were caught speaking on a hot mic at a New York airport in October 2022, but they were discussing the midterm elections. Schumer can clearly be heard telling Biden that Democrats were in danger of losing a seat, but it wasn’t clear which race he meant. 

He also discussed the debate in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race, when then-candidate John Fetterman, still recovering from a stroke, squared off against Republican Mehmet Oz.

“It looks like the debate didn’t hurt us too much in Pennsylvania, as of today, so that’s good,” Schumer said.

Schumer also said Democrats were “picking up steam” in Nevada and expressed concern about the Georgia U.S. Senate race, saying, “It’s hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker,” a former pro football star who was running for Senate as a Republican. Walker lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Biden’s words were mostly inaudible, but at no point did Schumer ask for a delay in anything or say he would blame Republicans. News coverage of the hot mic moment also shows the two were discussing midterm elections, not delaying reforms.

The claim is False.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, the gloves were off. 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., talked about transgender athletes at the Olympics during a session called “No Woke Warriors.” 

“The Olympic Committee has decided this year coming up that all the Olympic sports can make their own decisions to let men play in women’s sports,” the retired Auburn University football coach said Feb. 22. “Well, the first one decided the other day, that the boxing committee decided this year that men can box against women in the Olympics.” 

The audience gasped.

But did his claim hit the target? Has an international boxing committee for the Olympics changed its policy regarding transgender athletes? The short answer is no — a U.S. boxing group did. 

The international group that currently oversees Olympic-level boxing does not have an official policy regarding the participation of transgender athletes. A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee told PolitiFact that its rules regarding transgender athletes are unchanged from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and registration in men and women’s boxing categories is based on what gender is listed on a participant’s identifying documents, such as a passport. 

It is possible for people who change their gender to successfully apply for a U.S. passport that reflects that change. 

But none of this is new. A handful of transgender or nonbinary athletes have competed at the Olympic level, and none in boxing. We found no news reports that any transgender women have qualified for this year’s Olympics in boxing, or were on the USA Boxing team.  

On Feb. 1, Tuberville introduced a bill that would prohibit the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee from recognizing national sports governing bodies that allow transgender women to compete in amateur athletic competitions that are “designated for females, women, or girls.”

National boxing group requires surgery for trans women to box

A Tuberville spokesperson told PolitiFact that his CPAC comments referred to a policy from USA Boxing, the national governing body of Olympic-style amateur boxing.

USA Boxing in 2022 established a new transgender policy. It said minors under 18 must compete according to their “birth gender.”

For athletes age 18 and older, transgender women — people who were assigned the male sex at birth but who identify as women — are permitted to compete in the female category under four conditions: 

Similar requirements for surgery and hormone levels apply to transgender men. 

Testosterone monitoring in female athletes has been employed for many years at the Olympic level to regulate transgender athletes’ participation. Athletic governing bodies see it as a way to mitigate any unfair advantages, though some people argue it unfairly discriminates against intersex athletes or cisgender women with high testosterone levels. 

USA Boxing helps athletes compete at several international Olympic qualifying events, governed by Olympic-level rules. But USA Boxing is a national governing body, not international.

USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee told PolitiFact that USA Boxing “does not have any authority regarding which sports are allowed to participate in the Olympic Games and the rules by which they participate.”

Olympics rules for transgender athletes are made by international groups in each sport

The 2024 Summer Olympics will take place in Paris starting in July. The Olympics are organized by the International Olympic Committee. The IOC does not dictate the rules or eligibility requirements for each sport it oversees — that responsibility is left to international federations.

In 2021, the IOC released new guidance for sporting bodies that choose to develop criteria around transgender athletes; it is not mandatory for international federations to follow. 

Some international governing bodies have issued their own guidelines limiting the participation of transgender female athletes. But TransAthlete.com, which tracks transgender athlete policies, notes that most international federations have “no known policy.” 

Very few openly transgender and nonbinary athletes have competed at the Olympic level. 

So what about boxing? It’s complicated.

The amateur sport used to be governed by the International Boxing Association, until the IOC suspended it in 2019 over issues related to funding, leadership and judging integrity. (The IOC fully revoked the group’s recognition in 2023.)

In the group’s absence, an IOC task force organized boxing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which took place in 2021 because of the pandemic.

The IOC then established the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit to run the qualifying events and competition in Paris. In April and June 2023, the unit published its event regulations and medical rules, neither of which mention transgender athletes’ eligibility. 

An IOC spokesperson told PolitiFact “there has been no change with regard to people with sex variations and different gender identities in the rules for Tokyo 2020 and for Paris 2024.”

We did not find an explicit policy regarding the participation of transgender athletes. The Tokyo rules were taken largely from the rulebook of the suspended International Boxing Association, which stated that “gender tests may be conducted” as a part of athlete medical examinations. We were unable to get clarity about that rule’s meaning, but no such rule was included in 2024.

An IOC spokesperson said that registration in the men or women’s boxing categories are “confirmed in accordance with the gender shown” on required identifying documents like a passport or refugee identification document. It is possible to change one’s gender description on U.S. passports, but the spokesperson did not explicitly respond to PolitiFact’s follow-up questions about whether a transgender athlete who has changed how their gender appears on their passport would be allowed to participate in an Olympic boxing competition in the category that aligns with that gender. 

PolitiFact could find no rule prohibiting it, but the IOC did not answer our questions about whether it would be allowed.

Our ruling

Tuberville said that the Olympic boxing committee “decided this year that men can box against women in the Olympics.”

Tuberville told PolitiFact he was referring to a 2022 policy change made by USA Boxing, which oversees the sport in the United States. USA Boxing sends athletes to international qualifying competitions, but does not make the rules for those competitions or for the Olympics. The recent policy change applies nationally in the United States, not internationally as Tuberville said. 

Based on the information provided to us by the International Olympic Committee, it remains unclear whether transgender women would be allowed to compete in the women’s boxing category at the Olympics. 

That uncertainty leaves open the possibility that there is an element of truth here, but we did not find evidence that backs up Tuberville’s overall claim. We rate it Mostly False.

With one sentence, Fox News host Sean Hannity misinformed millions of viewers about voting rights in New York City.

During the Feb. 29 episode of his prime-time show “Hannity,” which averages 2.36 million viewers, the host falsely claimed that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are allowed to vote in New York City elections. 

Hannity was interviewing former President Donald Trump at the U.S. southern border. During a discussion about migrants entering the country, Trump said migrants are being allowed into the U.S. because the Biden administration “maybe want(s) the votes,” and that Democrats are trying to “register people right now as we speak,” a claim we previously rated Pants on Fire!  

Hannity responded, “In New York City, for example, local elections, illegal immigrants can vote.”

The show cut to a commercial break and let the inaccurate claim stand.

New York City passed 2021 legislation that would have allowed some immigrants to vote in municipal elections. But that law never took effect. 

We contacted Fox News for comment and did not receive a reply.

(Internet Archive)

Trump’s speculation about registering immigrants in the country illegally to vote echoes the discredited and racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that says Democrats support increased immigration as part of a plan to replace white people with nonwhite people. Trump and other Republicans have pushed the theory in recent months.

Noncitizens cannot vote in New York City municipal elections

In 2021, New York City lawmakers approved legislation that would have allowed about 800,000 noncitizen New York residents to vote in municipal elections, if they had lived in the city for 30 days and were legal permanent residents of the U.S. or had work authorization. 

The legislation would have applied to local elections. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in national elections.

The New York City law was immediately challenged in court and never took effect. Nonetheless, it has been central to false claims that immigrants in the country illegally can vote in New York.

In June 2022, before the law was scheduled to take effect, a New York judge struck it down, saying the measure violated the state constitution’s provision that “every citizen” is entitled to vote. That decision was appealed.

On Feb. 21, a New York appeals court agreed with the lower court’s decision: “We determine that this local law was enacted in violation of the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law, and thus, must be declared null and void.” 

It is unclear whether the ruling will be appealed again. 

Some cities across the U.S. have passed legislation to allow noncitizens to vote in some municipal elections, but that practice is not widespread. 

Our ruling

Hannity claimed in New York City “local elections, illegal immigrants can vote.”

New York City passed 2021 legislation that would have granted some noncitizens the right to vote in local elections. That law never went into effect and was declared unconstitutional by a state appeals court in February. 

We rate this claim False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

RELATED: Do ‘illegal immigrants now have the right to vote in New York’? No, that’s False

The capitalization used in standard birth certificates issued across the U.S. is nefarious, according to some online claims. 

“Your legal name is in fact a corporation,” read a Feb. 27 Instagram post. “This is why you always see your name written in ALL CAPS.”

The post, which featured a video clip of someone documenting a newborn’s footprint, said a birth certificate “is actually a death certificate” and people are all considered “legally dead.” 

The caption sowed further confusion, claiming that people are considered “legally dead” at birth because parents sign children over to the government as corporations. 

“When we’re born the government created this corporation in our name written in all CAPS, replacing it with the living spiritual flesh & blood you, so they can do business with us,” the caption said. “This is why 99% of the time anything from a corporation (corpse-ration) has your name written in all caps, your bills, ID, birth certificate — it’s your strawman.”

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The post’s use of the term “strawman” caught our attention.Promoters of the straw man conspiracy theory believe that with every birth certificate, the U.S. government sets up a fake identity or corporate trust in a newborn’s name. As a result, that person’s rights — and their obligations, including tax bills — are split between the physical person and the ones assigned to the baby’s fake identity or corporate account, which theory adherents call a “straw man.” 

PolitiFact found no evidence supporting the discredited theory that a person’s name is a corporation, and false claims linked to this straw man theory have previously been fact-checked. 

Promoters of the theory sometimes argue that they’re not required to pay taxes “because their tax bill is made out to a legal entity with a well-funded bank account that shares their name but isn’t actually them,” explained one History.com article. 

People trying to avoid paying their taxes cite the theory frequently enough that the Internal Revenue Service has addressed it.

“A taxpayer cannot avoid income tax on the erroneous theory that the government has created a separate and distinct entity or ‘straw man,’ in place of the taxpayer and that the taxpayer is not responsible for the tax obligations of the ‘straw man,’” read a 2005 IRS bulletin. “This argument has no merit and is frivolous.”

In a 2006 bulletin, the IRS addressed capitalization: “The use of all uppercase letters, italics, abbreviations or other formats of an individual’s name in government documents has no significance whatsoever,” the agency wrote.

Birth certificates and other important, official documents — sometimes referred to as vital records — often use upper case letters. 

Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services explained why on its website: “This common administrative practice is done to better sort and locate vital records and to enhance the clarity and reporting of information through a standardized style.”

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said that formatting, including any capitalization, used on forms is meant to reduce confusion and ensure clarity for people reading the documents. The State Department issues official documents related to U.S. consular births and deaths abroad.

For documents such as passports, international standards for displaying data help streamline and speed up administrative procedures during travel. The International Civil Aviation Organization recommends using uppercase letters for names. 

The straw man theory is often promoted by members of the sovereign citizen movement, a group that rejects the authority of government entities and considers its members exempt from laws. In 2011, the FBI said some sovereign citizens’ actions are “quirky,” rather than criminal, or are seemingly minor infractions. 

“However, a closer look at sovereign citizens’ more severe crimes, from financial scams to impersonating or threatening law enforcement officials, gives reason for concern,” the FBI wrote.

Our ruling

An Instagram post claimed, “Your legal name is in fact a corporation,” which is why people’s names are written in capital letters on official documents. 

We found no evidence supporting this baseless claim, which is linked to a persistent and unfounded conspiracy theory. To standardize documents, people’s names are often listed in capital letters on official documents such as birth certificates and passports. 

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

RELATED: Paying your taxes is mandatory, not optional

RELATED: An 1871 law did not make the United States government a corporation

As Congress weighs whether to send more military aid to Ukraine, European leaders are voicing concern over what a halt to U.S. financial support for the battle against Russia  war could mean for Ukraine.

A Feb. 25 Instagram post claimed that Poland’s foreign minister called the U.S. “dysfunctional and unreliable” because of congressional delays and deliberation over sending more military aid to Ukraine.

“If the United States of America fails to deliver military support to Ukraine despite the commander in chief’s (President Joe Biden’s) desire to do so, allies will start developing their own nuclear weapons because America is dysfunctional and unreliable,” read a quote attributed to Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The post was published by Occupy Democrats, a left-wing advocacy group  founded in 2012 in response to the conservative Tea Party movement.

This Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Poland’s foreign minister did express concerns about the prospect of no more U.S. military aid for Ukraine on Feb. 22 in a nearly nine-minute Bloomberg News interview. Sikorski said he wanted to appeal to the U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

“Please let democracy decide this issue,”Sikorski said. “Please allow this Ukraine supplemental (aid package) to go to a vote. Otherwise, if you preclude your commander in chief from doing what he wants to do,  … Your credibility will be damaged.”

Also the interview, Sikorski said, “If the supplemental (funding package proposed by Democrats) doesn’t go through and U.S. allies are disappointed and get the idea that the United States might not be able to help you even when the commander in chief wants to help you, that will have profound consequences for all American alliances around the world.” 

The Occupy Democrats post appears to trace to Ukrainian-born race car driver Igor Sushko’s X post on Feb. 24  that summarizes Sikorski’s Bloomberg News comments, but not Sikorski’s actual words. 

Occupy Democrats did not answer an email from PolitiFact seeking comment.

There is no evidence Sikorski called the U.S. “dysfunctional and unreliable” in his Bloomberg News comments and we found no evidence that he said this elsewhere.

We rate the claim that Poland’s foreign minister called the U.S. “dysfunctional and unreliable” False. 

After Michigan’s 2024 primary presidential election, unsubstantiated claims of absentee ballot voter fraud surfaced on social media. 

“Fifty percent of the vote was mail-in, unverified, no signature, no ID, no chance for election fraud,” a man featured in one Instagram reel said as he discussed how many votes President Joe Biden got in the state’s Democratic primary election.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Data collected by Michigan’s State Department shows that out of the 768,256 votes cast in Michigan’s Democratic primary, 478,072 Democratic votes were submitted as absentee ballots — so, more than half of the votes cast were absentee. 

But there is no evidence that those votes were casted without a signature or identification.

To verify a ballot, Michigan’s voting rules require clerks to check signatures on  absentee ballot requests and absentee ballot envelopes against the signatures voters have on file. 

Voters who apply for absentee ballots must be registered to vote. To register to vote in Michigan, people must provide proof of identity. Michigan and most other states do not ask for a copy of the voter’s ID to be returned with the absentee ballot, although a few states, including Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota and Ohio do have this requirement, according to information by the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

We searched Google and the Nexis news database and found no credible reports of absentee ballot voter fraud in Michigan’s presidential primary race. 

PolitiFact has previously debunked claims of voter fraud in Michigan’s 2022 midterm elections and the state’s 2020 presidential election. 

Biden received 81% of Democratic votes in the primary and nearly 19% were cast to other Democratic candidates or marked as “uncommitted,” part of a protest effort against Biden’s support of Israel in the war against Hamas. 

We rate the claim that 50% of votes to Biden in Michigan’s primary election were mail-in, without signatures or identification verification False. 

After an Arizona voter posted a photo showing she received two mail ballots from Maricopa County, a local elections official debunked any inference that something sinister occurred.

“Maricopa county at its finest … My first time ever voting in a presidential preference election and I received not one but two mail-in ballots. Thank you @stephen_richer,” Aubrey Savela posted on X. 

Savela is a field representative for Turning Point Action, a conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk.

Richer, Maricopa County recorder and a Republican, responded on X  that there was a reason Savela received two ballots. And more importantly, he said, only one will be counted.

“You changed your voter registration on the last day of voter registration (Feb. 20) from your Chandler address to your new Tempe address,” Richer wrote. “Because early ballots must go out on Feb. 21, your Chandler ballot was already set to go out, and so it did. Then we sent out a new ballot to your Tempe address when we processed your voter registration modification.”

Feb. 20 was the last day to register to vote in order to vote in the March 19 primary.

Richer said Savela’s photo of her two ballots offered a clue that she had two different addresses because the lengths of the blacked-out redacted address lines were not the same on both envelopes.

Also, Richer wrote, one of the ballot’s code numbers ends in “01” — which reflected Savela’s old address — and the other ends in “02”, the new address.

“As soon as the ‘02’ one goes out, the ‘01’ packet is dead,” Richer wrote. “Meaning even if you sent it back, it wouldn’t proceed to signature verification, and it wouldn’t be opened. That’s how we prevent people from voting twice. So just use the one with your new address ending in ‘02’ -— that’s the only one that will work.”

Richer often debunks voting misinformation and has faced death threats because of it. Alabama resident Brian Jerry Ogstad was arrested Feb. 28, accused of sending threatening messages to Maricopa election workers in 2022 including one that read, “You will all be executed for your crimes.”

Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer for programs at the Election Center at the National Association of Election Officials and a former Maricopa County elections official, said Savela’s post lacks understanding and important context.

“This is yet another example of standard operating procedures being taken out of context, misconstrued and misrepresented in order to support a false narrative regarding the legitimacy of our elections and the integrity of our election officials,” Patrick said.

Election offices have systems in place to prevent double mail in voting

It is not uncommon for voters who update their registration close to an election to receive two ballots, each with unique codes ensuring that only one will be counted, JP Martin, spokesperson for Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, told PolitiFact. 

“Our voting systems are designed with robust safeguards against double voting,” Martin said.

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is home to more than half the state’s voters. The majority of Arizona voters cast mail ballots, as they have for decades. That’s why any misinformation about voting by mail is particularly harmful to democracy in the battleground state.

Voters can do their part by updating their voter registration in a timely fashion, said Jenny Guzman, program director of Common Cause Arizona.

But nationwide, election officials take similar steps to prevent double voting.

Jurisdictions that send mail ballots have developed policies and systems to handle voters changing addresses at the last minute before ballots are mailed, said Barbara Smith Warner, executive director of the National Vote At Home Institute, an organization advocating for mail ballot access.

“It’s not unusual for such voters to have already been mailed a ballot, and for the elections official to mail them a second ballot that reflects the races/contests appropriate for their new residence,” Smith Warner said.

Ballot return envelopes are coded and the election management system is programmed to alert the election official that a voter has been mailed two ballots. Election officials have systems to ensure that if the voter returns both ballots, only one is counted.

Voter registration management systems are increasingly  sophisticated, making it rare for such a mistake to be made, Smith Warner said. However, post-election audits typically review these cases to ensure that proper procedures and state laws were followed, she said. 

Many states are members of the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium that shares voter registration lists. The center identifies voters with duplicate registrations in the same state or voters who have moved to another state. This helps prevent double voting.

We found anecdotal examples in the news of voters receiving two mail ballots because of an error.

In 2020, election officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, erroneously sent some residents multiple mail-in ballots ahead of the state’s June primary election. The county said a glitch in the state’s computerized voter registry system led it to accidentally print duplicate labels for mail-in and absentee ballots.

“Even if a person receives multiple ballots, only one return ballot can be counted. This is because the bar code on the label that is being used for tracking is exactly the same,” a statement from the county said. “When voted ballots are returned to the office, they are scanned. If another ballot was returned from that same voter, it would show as a duplicate vote when scanned and would be rejected by the system. Staff would mark the ballot as rejected. Those ballots are kept but are not sent to the warehouse to be counted or opened.”

Of course, another way that double voting can occur is if a voter casts a mail ballot in two states in the same election. But that’s a crime. Four voters in The Villages, a largely conservative retirement community in central Florida, were arrested for voting more than once in the 2020 election.

RELATED: Ask PolitiFact: What steps do election officials take to prevent fraud?

RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Arizona

Muchas publicaciones en redes sociales dicen ofrecer una tarjeta llamada “flex card”, que supuestamente se puede usar para pagar deudas, cubrir costos médicos y comprar comida. Aunque esto puede sonar como una gran solución para muchos, estos videos obvian información importante sobre estas tarjetas.

PolitiFact ha investigado varias de estas publicaciones y hemos notado que usualmente tratan de estafar y confundir a las personas sobre este beneficio. 

Estas publicaciones suelen pedir que los usuarios sigan un enlace a una página con preguntas que supuestamente determinarán la elegibilidad para la tarjeta. Sin embargo, estos enlaces y números de teléfono proveídos no suelen corresponder a compañías de seguros médicos legítimas. Al preguntarles sobre la “flex card”, estos no dan respuestas concretas sin antes tener que proporcionarles información privada, como el seguro social. 

PolitiFact acá te aclara lo que debes saber sobre las flex cards.

¿Qué son las flex cards? ¿Quién las provee?

Las flex cards son tarjetas de débito prepagadas ofrecidas a beneficiarios de algunos planes de Medicare Advantage, los cuales generalmente ofrecen beneficios que el Medicare original no cubre como servicios de visión u odontología. 

Estas tarjetas pueden usarse principalmente para comprar equipo o servicios médicos aprobados por un médico. Sin embargo, no son proporcionadas por Medicare o el gobierno.

El Medicare es un programa ofrecido en los Estados Unidos por los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid a ciudadanos o residentes de 65 años y más, o menores de edad si tienen discapacidades o fallo permanente de riñón. 

¿Quién es elegible para las tarjetas?

Para ser elegible, la persona tiene que ser ciudadana o residente, tener más de 65 años o una condición crónica y tener una póliza de Medicare Advantage. 

Pero no todos los planes de Medicare Advantage ofrecen estas tarjetas; la disponibilidad depende de varios factores, incluyendo el estado donde vive la persona. 

Los videos engañosos sobre las flex cards suelen decirle a los usuarios que solo tienen “24 horas” para aplicar a este beneficio, pero esto no es así. Esa es una táctica de manipulación que usan para urgir a las personas a actuar rápidamente. 

Aunque las personas tienen que asegurarse de inscribirse durante el periodo de inscripciones abiertas a un plan de Medicare Advantage que ofrezca la flex card, este periodo es de varios meses (del 1 de enero al 31 de marzo).

Los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid recomiendan contactar directamente a su seguro médico para saber si el beneficio es ofrecido con su plan de Medicare Advantage y aplicar con ellos. También puede verificar los beneficios de su plan en la página web oficial de Medicare. 

¿Para qué sirven? ¿Qué cubren?

Lo que puedes comprar con estas tarjetas de débito son servicios y productos específicos, principalmente médicos, y depende de tu plan médico. 

Estos incluyen:

• Equipo médico como silla de ruedas o muletas

• Copagos y deducibles no cubiertos por un seguro médico

• Prescripciones y medicamentos sin receta

• Cuidado dental, visión y auditivo

Aunque los anuncios en redes sociales tienden a ofrecer múltiples beneficios con estas tarjetas como alimentos, gasolina, ropa nueva y zapatos, esto solo pasa en raras ocasiones, ya que un doctor debe ordenar estos artículos médicamente necesarios. También, solo personas con ciertas enfermedades crónicas pueden usar las tarjetas para algunos gastos en comida y comestibles. 

Y las tarjetas no son vagamente “para todo lo que desees o necesites” como dicen algunas publicaciones.  

El uso de las flex cards empezó en el 2020, cuando los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid permitieron a las aseguradoras privadas ofrecerlas para servicios específicos.

¿Cuánto dinero ofrecen estas tarjetas aproximadamente?

Las flex cards tienen montos limitados que varían según el plan médico y la compañía aseguradora. Es raro recibir grandes montos como dicen algunas de las publicaciones engañosas. En el 2022, la flex card promedio estaba prepagada con un monto de $500.

Los fondos en la tarjeta deben usarse durante el año específico en el que el pan fue seleccionado, ya que los planes pueden cambiar el tipo de cobertura que ofrecen anualmente, según los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid.

¿Por qué se enfocan en Latinos estas publicaciones engañosas?

Muchas de las publicaciones que PolitiFact ha visto son dirigidas a personas mayores y a Latinos. Este sector de la población puede ser el objetivo de las publicaciones ya que quizás están más aislados mientras sus hijos o nietos están en el trabajo y escuela, dijo Melissa deCardi Hladek, una profesora asistente y principal faculty del Center for Equity in Aging en el Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

 “Este aislamiento crea espacio para que los estafadores creen confianza y manipulen a los latinos mayores — tras el miedo, a veces una sensación de urgencia si ‘no actúan ahora’”, Hladek dijo.

Ella también dijo que los latinos mayores pueden ser propensos a ser víctimas ya que ellos tienden a ser más respetuosos y menos conocedores de la tecnología. También son generalmente más religiosos y pueden considerar la oferta en el anuncio como un “milagro”, Hladek dijo. Ella noto que muchos de los comentarios en las publicaciones dicen “amén” a la oportunidad presentada. 

El hecho de que las publicaciones estén en español también juega un papel importante. 

Hladek dijo que cuando alguien se comunica con una persona en el lenguaje que prefieren y usan señales culturales más familiares a ellos, la persona puede sentirse más atraída a ese contenido.

“Si un latino mayor prefiere hablar español y de repente este anuncio está en español, le prestara más atención al punto del anuncio”, dijo Hladek. 

Ella añadió que estas publicaciones engañosas tienden a tomar un grano de información que puede ser verídica dependiendo del plan médico, con el propósito de confundir a los usuarios. 

Ella recomienda ser cautelosos antes de darle click a un enlace y dar información personal. 

Hladek también dijo que es importante no dejarse manipular por las publicaciones que dicen que solo hay pocas horas para recibir beneficios.

“Nunca hay ninguna emergencia en internet que no pueda esperar un día” Hladek dijo. “Nunca hay nada que solo puedan obtener durante 24 horas, nunca hay nada que vaya a ser así”. 

Otros puntos que debes tener en cuenta sobre las flex cards:

• Solo tu representante de seguro privado puede ofrecerte una flex card, así que no le des click a los videos que prometen hacerte calificar fácilmente. 

• Visita esta página web de Medicare para comparar planes de Medicare Advantage que ofrecen las flex cards.  

• Puedes llamar al 1-800-MEDICARE o visitar la página web shiphelp.org, para consultar con un agente sobre los planes de seguro, incluyendo si ofrecen flex cards.

• Contacta al Senior Medicare Patrol en tu estado para reportar un fraude de Medicare o llama a este número nacional, 1-877-808-2468, para más información sobre cómo reportar fraude en tu estado.

¿Como identificar información falsa en internet?

Aprende a identificar información falsa en el internet y a verificarla a través de este curso ofrecido gratuitamente por MediaWise en Español.

Lea más reportes de PolitiFact en Español aquí.

Debido a limitaciones técnicas, partes de nuestra página web aparecen en inglés. Estamos trabajando en mejorar la presentación.