Votebeat media bias and reliability
The rating organisations do not give Votebeat one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. We have seen it on 12 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Votebeat biased?
The rating organisations do not give Votebeat one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Votebeat left or right?
The rating organisations do not give Votebeat one shared verdict in the records we hold. Their published ratings are AllSides: Centre; Media Bias/Fact Check: Leans left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is Votebeat reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Votebeat are Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What Votebeat has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Votebeat’s own report linked underneath.
US news outlets will announce midterm election winners before all votes are tallied, using data from the Associated Press or Decision Desk HQ. These providers use vote counts, statistical analysis, and modeling to project outcomes, though past race calls have been retracted.
Votebeat reported it asWhen will we know the results of the midterms? (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
The Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning them of potential criminal prosecution for failing to preserve election records for 22 months. The letters, dated October 29, were signed by Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
Votebeat reported it asDays before midterms, DOJ sends another warning of criminal prosecution to election officials (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Fox News Power Rankings suggest Democrats are positioned to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the upcoming midterms. Projections indicate a shift of at least 20 races towards Democrats, with one scenario showing them winning up to 237 seats.
Votebeat reported it as31 election experts weigh in on whether Trump will interfere in the midterms (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Department of Homeland Security officials have stated they do not plan to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to patrol polling places during the upcoming elections. However, activists and minority voter organizations express ongoing concerns about potential voter intimidation.
Votebeat reported it asCould ICE agents show up at your polling place? Here’s what the law says (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
The Department of Justice announced charges against 16 individuals across seven states for election crimes, including noncitizens casting ballots. The indictments cover illegal voting, voter registration, fraud, and firearm offenses.
Votebeat reported it asTexas officials announce charges, investigations related to noncitizen voting (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration's request to enforce new U.S. Postal Service mail ballot regulations ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The court's order leaves in place a lower court injunction blocking the rules.
Votebeat reported it asSupreme Court deals fatal blow to Trump’s mail ballot restrictions for 2026 (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
A whistleblower has raised alarms about a new U.S. Postal Service system designed to verify mail ballots, alleging it is being developed with inadequate testing and a rushed timeline. The system, intended to comply with a Trump executive order, could lead to the rejection of large numbers of ballots.
Votebeat reported it asUSPS whistleblower says rushed new mail ballot systems could disenfranchise voters (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Democratic-controlled states have filed a new lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order that seeks to limit mail voting in the midterm elections. The suit targets new U.S. Postal Service rules that require federal approval for mail ballot envelope designs and a list of eligible voters.
Votebeat reported it asA mass of voters are about to be removed from the mail voting list in this key swing state (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
A federal judge has lifted a nationwide injunction blocking President Trump's executive order on mail-in voting. The Supreme Court ruled a previous challenge was premature, but states have filed a new lawsuit arguing the USPS rule interferes with election administration.
Votebeat reported it asA mass of voters are about to be removed from the mail voting list in this key swing state (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes confronted federal officials during a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency call, accusing the Trump administration of abandoning election security duties. Democratic states have sued over threatened FEMA funding cuts, while the Justice Department prepares 1,000 election monitors.
Votebeat reported it as‘I don’t trust you’: Trump administration election security call gets testy as Democratic state officials push back on federal pressure. (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged five non-U.S. citizens with voting in the 2024 presidential election and one U.S. citizen with registering a non-citizen spouse. The cases stem from 38 referrals by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office, with 22 still under review.
Votebeat reported it as5 noncitizens voted in 2024 election, Michigan AG says (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens has become a high-stakes battle over the party’s future, with El-Sayed backed by progressives and Stevens by the establishment. The winner will face Republican Mike Rogers in November.
Votebeat reported it asIt won’t be long until we know the results of Michigan’s primary election (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Who says so
2 organisations have published a rating for this outlet, in their own words. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the useful part and it is left standing.
How reliably it reports fact
A rating of the newsroom in general, by others, and a different thing from the Trust score we publish on each story, which judges one piece of reporting.
High factuality
- Media Bias/Fact CheckhighCheck it
Who owns it
We hold no ownership record for Votebeat.
Where it publishes from
- Official site
- votebeat.org
- Seen publishing on
- votebeat.org, projects.votebeat.org
- Access
- Free to read
What we have seen ourselves
Counted across the stories this site has published, which is the only denominator a reader can check: every one of them has a page, and every page lists the reports it was written from.
- Stories
- 12
- Reports listed
- 12
- We could read
- 1
- First seen
- 5 August 2026
11 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 1 we could open, not on everything it published.
On 4 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and Votebeat ran the story anyway.
Across the 12 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, we logged no report earlier than Votebeat’s on 1 of them. Overall it filed a median of 4 days after the earliest report we logged.
Measured 7 November 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 7 November 2026. Ratings pulled 9 October 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Votebeat, ordered by how often we have seen them on a story. Sharing a rating is not the same as being alike.
Think this page is wrong?
The leanings above are published by AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check, and we republish them rather than make them. If you think one is misapplied, the strongest place to say so is with the organisation that made it, and every verdict here links to their page.
What we are responsible for is everything else: the ownership chain, where Votebeat publishes from, which of our stories we have listed it on, and whether we have the right publisher at all. Tell us what is wrong and an editor reads it.
Report something wrong on this page
Anything we correct is written up in the public corrections log. We do not publish reader votes as a rating, because an unattributed rating is the thing this site exists to argue against.
Every rating on this page is a named third party’s published work, republished with its author and, where one exists, a link to it. Our own coverage record is the section we measure ourselves. Neither is a judgement of any individual report: those are scored story by story, and the reasoning is on our methodology page.