NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

Aroundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.

CLAIM: Social Security Administration data shows the number of voters registering without a photo ID is skyrocketing in three key swing states, evidence that migrants who entered the country illegally are registering to vote in Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania.

THE FACTS: Election officials in all three states said the information being shared is incorrect. In fact, recent voter registrations in those states are well below the numbers being cited online.

The posts are misrepresenting data from the SSA’s Help America Vote Verification system, which tracks requests by states to verify the identity of individuals who registered to vote using the last four digits of their social security number. Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections and noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare, as states have processes to prevent it.

“The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING IN 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania,” reads one X post, citing data from the SSA to claim that there have been 220,731 such registrations in Arizona; 1,250,710 in Texas; and 580,513 in Pennsylvania.

The post continues: “HAVV allows voters to register with a Social Security Number (4 digits). Illegals are not able to get licenses there. But they can get Social Security cards (for work authorization permits).” HAVV is the SSA’s Help America Vote Verification system.

But these claims misrepresent what the SSA data shows.

“This again appears to be an example of people who don’t understand how elections work misinterpreting data — perhaps intentionally, perhaps unintentionally — to create a false impression and inflate the potential for voter fraud,” David Becker, the founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The Associated Press.

The numbers being identified as individual voter registrations in Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania are referencing the total number of requests states made to the SSA to verify voters’ identities from Dec. 31 to March 23.

Election officials in the three states noted that actual voter registration applications during that time period were much lower than the numbers being shared online.

Maricopa County, which makes up approximately 60% of Arizona’s voting population, has had 39,653 new registrants since the beginning of 2024, according to county recorder Stephen Richer. This is far below the 220,731 said to have registered with no photo ID.

In Texas, officials said in a statement that 57,711 people have registered to vote in Texas since the start of 2024, far fewer than the 1.25 million cited online and the number of people registered in the same period in 2022 and 2020. The state currently has approximately 17.9 million registered voters.

As of April 4, there had been more than 75,000 new voter registrations in Pennsylvania, not more than 580,000, according to Matt Heckel, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State. There were approximately 8.7 million registered voters in the state on Monday.

Individuals in most states register to vote with either their driver’s license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their social security number. States use the first two options to verify the individual’s identity with their department of motor vehicles. This accounts for “the vast majority” of voters, according to Becker. A voter’s identity can be verified using the third option through the SSA’s HAVV system.

All verification requests for which the name, date of birth and last four digits of an SSN match with at least one SSA record are recorded by the agency under a “total matches” category.

HAVV requests are made for voters who are registering for the first time, but also if a voter submits an application after they move to a new state, or even within the same state, Becker said.

Officials in Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania all confirmed that the number of transactions in the HAVV system does not represent what posts online are claiming it does.

“It is 100% false that there are 220,731 new registrants in Arizona since January 1, 2024 of suspect citizenship,” Richer told the AP.

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson wrote in a statement that “it is totally inaccurate that 1.2 million voters have registered to vote in Texas without a photo ID this year.”

CLAIM: Biden declared that Easter Sunday is now a holiday celebrating transgender people.

THE FACTS: Transgender Day of Visibility has been celebrated on March 31 since 2009, when the holiday was created. Every year since becoming president, Biden has issued a proclamation around the observance on that date. It was a coincidence in 2024 that the day corresponded with Easter Sunday, which falls on a different date each year.

Nonetheless, social media users shared posts saying that Biden chose March 31 for Transgender Day of Visibility as an affront to Christians. Many Christians oppose greater recognition of trans people as part of their religious beliefs and took offense at the two days being paired, even though it was only a byproduct of the calendar.

“He could pick any day to declare a Transgender day,” reads one X post. “For Joe Biden to select Easter Sunday is a insult to Christians. This was intentional. It was done with the intent to flip the middle finger at Christians. His staff knew exactly what they were doing.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the claims “untrue” at a White House briefing on Monday, saying that the administration was “really so surprised by the misinformation that has been out there around this.”

“Every year for the past several years on March 31 Transgender Day of Visibility is marked. And as we know, for folks who understand the calendar and how it works, Easter falls on different Sundays every year,” she told reporters. And this year it happened to coincide with Transgender Visibility Day. And so that is the simple fact. That is what has happened. That is where we are.”

Following the proclamation, the Trump campaign criticized Biden, a devout Roman Catholic, of being insensitive to religion, and fellow Republicans piled on.

Jean-Pierre said at the briefing that it is “unsurprising” that “politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful and dishonest rhetoric.”

She added that Biden “will never abuse his personal faith for political purposes or for profit.”

Biden first issued a proclamation about Transgender Day of Visibility in 2021, about two months after his inauguration.

He continued this recognition in 2022 and 2023. Proclamations are generally statements about public policy by the president.

Rachel Crandall-Crocker, the executive director and co-founder of the nonprofit Transgender Michigan, organized the first International Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 to bring attention to a population that is often ignored, disparaged or victimized.

CLAIM: Biden banned religious symbols from a White House Easter egg art contest.

THE FACTS: A flier soliciting children from National Guard families to submit an egg design for a White House exhibit organized in collaboration with the American Egg Board specified that submissions should not include “religious symbols” or “overtly religious themes.”

But such restrictions are nothing new.

“The American Egg Board has been a supporter of the White House Easter Egg Roll for over 45 years and the guideline language referenced in recent news reports has consistently applied to the board since its founding, across administrations,” Emily Metz, its president and CEO, said in a statement.

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokesperson for first lady Jill Biden, similarly wrote in an X post that “the American Egg Board’s flyer’s standard non-discrimination language requesting artwork has been used for the last 45 years, across all Dem &Republican Admins — for all WH Easter Egg Rolls—incl previous Administration’s.”

After the flier spread online, social media users falsely claimed that it was Biden who had decided to prohibit such imagery as part of the contest, which is part of many Easter traditions at the White House, including the annual Easter egg roll.

“Joe Biden just told all the Easter egg art decorators in the White House that NO RELIGIOUS IMAGERY is allowed,” reads one X post. “He’s just spit in the face of Christ on the cross who died for our sins to lift up the ULTIMATE sinners.”

The American Egg Board is a commodity checkoff program, meaning that it promotes and researches a particular agricultural commodity without referencing specific producers or brands.

All such programs must follow federal guidelines, including prohibitions on religious discrimination. This has been the case since the American Egg Board was established in 1976, according to Metz. Children from National Guard families submitted egg designs showcasing their lives for the third annual “Colonnade of Eggs” exhibit at the White House, which honors the first lady’s support of military-connected families. Artists brought their designs to life on real eggs.

The American Egg Board has historically presented a commemorative egg to the first lady that reflects her passions, causes and contributions. Since 2022, the board has collaborated with the White House to curate larger exhibits displaying egg art.