2020 Lie of the Year Readers’ Choice poll results

There hasn’t been a shortage of falsehoods and misinformation this year, yet for PolitiFact readers, the Lie of the Year distinction goes to the false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and that President Donald Trump won reelection.

Typically, PolitiFact asks readers to cast their vote for Lie of the Year before we announce our own selection. This year, we asked readers to weigh in after we had made our choice and presented our case in a deeply researched report.

PolitiFact editors’ choice for Lie of the Year — lies about the coronavirus pandemic — was readers’ runner-up.

This year we limited our Readers’ Choice poll to our top three finalists and invited readers to add write-ins. (Last year, we offered readers 10 finalists, plus the write-in option.) We received more than 3,100 responses for this year’s poll.

Here are the results:

1. False claims that the 2020 election was rigged and that Trump won reelection, 51%

2. Lies about the coronavirus (PolitiFact’s choice), 41%

3. False claims that celebrities and politicians are child molesters (QAnon), 2.8%

4. Other, 2%

A note: It’s not unusual for PolitiFact readers to select a Lie of the Year that’s different from PolitiFact’s choice. In 2019, for example, PolitiFact selected the falsehood that the whistleblower was wrong about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Readers, on the other hand, voted for Trump’s false statement that his administration was the most open and transparent ever. 

Results may not total 100% due to rounding.