Tipsheet

Oh, So That's How 350,000 California Recall Votes Vanished from CNN's Vote Tally

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 16, 2021 6:00 AM

Some people were highlighting this on social media the night of the California recall. Yes, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was spared. How? Well, I’m, sure everyone has their own opinion about that from the outlandish to the California Republican Party screwing things up—it’s all up for debate. Newsom’s venture to Napa Valley for a nice dinner at French Laundry with friends during the lockdowns was the catalyst for this recall effort. He was there with his wife. No one had masks on, and no one was social distancing. The other attendees were medical professionals that begged the question about the severity of COVID. If it’s so serious, why are our leaders not following the rules but enacting fascistic protocols to curb the spread which did nothing? Well, during CNN’s coverage of the returns, people noticed a ton of votes in support of recalling Newsom vanish into thin air. They went into the Bermuda Triangle. Some 350,000 votes evaporated, which the network has blamed on a staffer error (via Associated Press):

CLAIM: During live CNN election coverage of the California recall election on Sept. 14, more than 350,000 votes to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom suddenly disappeared.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. Edison Research, the polling firm that provides election data to CNN, said a data reporting error by one of its staffers caused false vote totals to briefly appear on a live CNN broadcast. The error was fixed within two minutes.

THE FACTS: Within hours of Newsom handily fending off a recall attempt from Republicans in California on Tuesday, social media users began sharing a clip of someone watching CNN election night coverage, claiming it showed real-time election manipulation.

The video, which spread widely on Gab, Telegram, Twitter and Facebook, showed a ticker on the bottom of CNN’s screen with the question, “Should Gov. Newsom be recalled?” At first, the ticker displayed about 4.5 million “no” votes and 2.2 million “yes” votes. Moments later, the ticker’s tally of “yes” votes dropped to about 1.9 million.

“Where did they go?” says a man in the background of the video. “Four hundred thousand votes just disappeared?”

Republican commentators on Facebook and Twitter questioned why 351,000 votes were “DELETED,” called the clip proof of “fraud” and claimed it showed Newsom only kept his position because of machine “glitches.”

In reality, the vote changes had a simple explanation: a brief reporting error by an Edison Research staffer at a county office in Santa Clara, California. The changing numbers in the viral clip are a result of the error being fixed, according to Rob Farbman, executive vice president of Edison Research.

Look, it’s a deep blue state, so I can see how things turned out Tuesday night. On a brighter note, Republican candidate Larry Elder had a strong showing, so keep an eye on him. He’ll be back to running for something in the future. Yet, for those who are still suspicious of the results the line “CNN declined a request for comment” in the AP story probably only heightened your concern. In a time where everyone, even liberals, is looking to challenge the validity of elections, these errors can easily set off a firestorm. 

I’ll let y’all debate the rest below, but some good memes have come from the results. I’m sure some of you agree and some don’t. 

Duke it out in the comments section.