While arguably every major election is fraught with false news stories and tall tales, this particular election has a lot of people asking a lot of questions. Following up my piece from several weeks ago detailing the rampant “misinformation crisis” that’s taken Facebook by storm, I’d like to go a bit further and detail (and disprove) some of the most widespread falsehoods we’ve seen this election cycle. My hope is that even one person might recognize a few of these stories, and perhaps rethink their vote; I encourage everyone to do their own research and form their own opinions, and I absolutely urge anyone who’s voting to very seriously question any news source. In an age where media credibility is slim to none, it’s important to continue the search for facts, and hopefully, I can help fill in some of the blanks. Keep in mind that I got all the information I needed to “bust” these myths with a quick Google search - and you should do the same.

1. “Ted Cruz will run as a Democrat against Trump if Hillary drops out.”

I’d love to know who started this one. Though we all know there’s a bitter rivalry between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, it’s difficult to imagine someone as conservative as Ted Cruz running as a democrat (a quick look into his policies is enough to show that he’s actually quite similar to Trump, if not even more conservative).

2. “Hillary Clinton started the birther movement.”

At this point, I don’t feel like we can expect much else out of Donald Trump - you might’ve seen the recent campaign event in which Trump acknowledged the previous suggestions (which he propagated) that President Obama was not born in the United States. Trump managed to skirt around his statement for an entire thirty minutes while simultaneously advertising his new hotel - and then, during the short statement in which he acknowledged that, yes, Obama was born here, Trump ended by saying Hillary Clinton herself started the birther movement. In fact, the birther movement originated as a rumor that just exploded during the election - Hillary Clinton didn’t do anything to suggest that Obama had been born anywhere but here.

3. “All living US presidents have warned Americans against voting for Donald Trump.”

Okay, this one is partially true. At this point in time, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton (both Democratic former presidents), and Barack Obama have endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and expressed great criticism aimed at Donald Trump. While neither of the former Bush presidents has endorsed Hillary Clinton outright, they have also refrained from expressing approval of Donald Trump.

4. “Donald Trump tweeted that God is a ‘dope’ and a ‘dummy’.”

As funny as this one would have been, it’s not real - there were no such tweets. Oh, well - Trump has gone on plenty of other Twitter rampages to keep us satisfactorily entertained (and maybe a little scared).

5. “Pope Francis endorses Trump.”

Nope! I can see why his Holiness would hesitate to endorse either candidate - I’m a Catholic myself and I’m hesitating, too.

6. “Tom Hanks endorses Trump.”

He actually endorsed Hillary and is an active campaigner.

7. “Donald Trump was never called racist before running for president.”

This one is my personal favorite and the one I’ve seen spread most often on Facebook. In fact, Donald Trump has been called racist more than once prior to his campaign - he received a great deal of flak after racist remarks against Native Americans, black people, and Mexicans. Believe what you want about Donald Trump, but his campaign this year is definitely not the first time he’s been called out for racism.