PA News Station Reports Harris Won the State – 9 Days Before Election

Craig Bannister | October 30, 2024
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With “100%” of the Pennsylvania vote in, Democrat Kamala Harris defeated Republican Donald Trump in the race for the presidency, local ABC news station WNEP reported on Sunday, October 27 – more than a week before Election Day.

“President Statewide,” “Reporting 100%,” declared a graphic that displayed at the bottom of the television screen during a broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix, announcing the following results:

"Test Results"

Clips of the video soon made their way to social media, introduced by snarky comments.

In response, WNEP posted a “note” on its website saying that the results shown were “test results” that it didn’t mean to air:

“Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did.”

“WNEP regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion,” according to the note, which promises that the station has made changes to ensure that prematurely airing election results “does not happen again.”

 

 

 

This isn’t even the first time a station has posted a graphic showing false “test” election results more than a week prior to the election.

In 2022, a Phoenix news station posted the “results” of Arizona’s race for governor, nearly two weeks before Election Day, as The Washington Examiner reported at the time:

“A local TV news station in Arizona is apologizing after airing a graphic showing Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor, as the winner in her race 12 days out from the midterm elections.

“The graphic, which appeared Thursday afternoon on FOX 10 Phoenix at the bottom left-hand part of the screen, showed Hobbs with 53% support compared to 47% for Republican nominee Kari Lake. Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state, had a check by her number, indicating she was the victor.”

The full “Note from WNEP: Election test results mistakenly shown on air” is presented below:

“The test results aired for several minutes during coverage of Formula 1 racing.

“Test results for the upcoming November 5 general election mistakenly appeared on WNEP-TV early Sunday evening during a broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix.

“Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did.

“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 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.”