FACT CHECK: Is Billionaire Bill Gates Chairman Of The Maricopa County Board Of Supervisors?
A post shared on Instagram purports billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates is the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which oversees elections.
View this post on Instagram
Verdict: False
The Gates listed on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors website is not the billionaire. A Maricopa County spokesperson the man is a different person.
Fact Check:
The billionaire Gates is currently working on turning alcohol into jet fuel, according to Fortune. Election fraud conspiracy claims have circulated on social media due to the slow, but normal, counting of remaining ballots in Arizona, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Instagram post, liked over 80 times, purports the billionaire Gates is the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors who oversees election results. The post features an image of Google search results listing an individual named Bill Gates on the board.
The claim is false. The Gates listed on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors website is a “lifelong Republican” representing District 3 and has practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona for 25 years. He was first elected to serve on the Board of Supervisors in 2016 before being re-elected in 2020, according to the website.
The lawyer Gates also appeared in a video shared on Twitter by the Maricopa County Elections Department during the 2022 midterms where he discussed issues with tabulators not working properly. (RELATED: Did A Texas Polling Place Turn Republican Voters Away?)
Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an update for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022
There are no credible news reports suggesting the billionaire Gates is the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Likewise, the billionaire has neither commented on the claim via his website nor his verified social media accounts.
“This claim is false,” a spokesperson for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told Check Your Fact via email.
“It’s a different Bill Gates,” Maricopa County spokesperson Jason Berry said of the claim in an email to Check Your Fact.
*This story has been updated to include a quote from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
