CLAIM: Reports of a gas leak at a Kentucky polling place were an election-rigging tactic to gain more votes for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A spokesperson from Louisville Gas & Electric confirmed there was a legitimate report of a gas leak at a polling place in Jefferson County on Tuesday morning. The leak caused the polls there to close for 30 minutes. A judge extended voting at the location from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Between this location and another where voting was extended for 30 minutes, only one more voter cast a ballot after 6 p.m., according to the county clerk’s office.

THE FACTS: Social media users are questioning the incident that briefly paused voting at a polling place in Kentucky’s most populous county, insinuating that it was a ruse to give Beshear the votes he needed to win reelection.

Highland Baptist Church in Louisville was closed for half an hour on Tuesday morning after a gas leak was reported there. A judge ruled that it should stay open another 30 minutes that evening to reach a statutorily required 12-hour voting window. Online, users baselessly claimed it was suspicious.

“Looks a lot like 100k ballots with the Governor race only filled out showed up tonight after the ‘gas leak,’” reads one post on X, formerly known as Twitter, with more than 3,000 likes as of Wednesday.

Together, posts sowing doubt in the leak amassed tens of thousands of shares on the platform.

However, the gas leak was real — and the extra voting time at...

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