Did ABC station just declare Harris the winner over Trump in Pennsylvania weeks before Election Day?

An ABC affiliate mistakenly showed Kamala Harris winning Pennsylvania ahead of Election Day.


Pop Culture & Art October 31, 2024
Courtesy: AFP

An ABC affiliate station sparked a wave of conspiracy theories after accidentally displaying what looked like official Pennsylvania election results for Kamala Harris winning the critical swing state — well over a week before Election Day.

The surprising display appeared at the bottom of the screen during ABC's coverage of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix, broadcast by WNEP-TV, a local station serving northern Pennsylvania.

The graphic showed the Vice President ahead with 52% of the vote against Republican opponent Donald Trump’s 47%, with all precincts reportedly counted.

This unexpected graphic fueled discussions on social media, sparking allegations of election manipulation.

WNEP-TV clarified that the results were displayed “in error” and explained they had been “randomly generated” as part of a routine pre-election equipment test.

“Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did,” the station told The Daily Mail, which was the first to report the incident.

“The numbers seen on the screen were randomly generated test results sent out to help news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night.”

The station further explained: “The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count. Pennsylvania law does not allow mail-in ballots to be taken out of their envelopes until 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, and no votes of any kind will be counted in Pennsylvania until after the polls close at 8:00 p.m. WNEP regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion. We have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again.”

Currently, Trump is leading Pennsylvania by a slim margin of 0.7%, holding 48.2% over Harris’s 47.5%, based on Real Clear Politics data.

In the 2020 election, Joe Biden narrowly won Pennsylvania, beating Trump by 80,555 votes or 1.17%, which helped him secure the state’s 20 electoral votes and ultimately, the presidency.

Trump supporters began sharing the WNEP-TV footage online, with some reacting strongly to the error.

“ABC is cheating for the Democrat machine. Their license should be revoked,” one user commented.

Another added: “If the same graphics pop up after November 5th, with the same percentages & the same vote count, it’ll be EXTREMELY suspicious. And the media wonders why nobody trusts them?”

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