It’s not proof of election fraud—Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won the Georgia runoff, which isn’t a shocking ending to this year’s Senate races. Republican Herschel Walker wasn’t going to win this contest. Still, for all the talk about how it’s unpatriotic to question the legitimacy of our elections, the same states find ways to offer new reasons to cast doubt on the results. Again, there was some funny business in Maricopa County, Arizona, with the same incompetence regarding vote tabulation, among other things.
In Georgia, some viewers watching the returns noticed how some votes vanished in real-time. For both Warnock and Walker, a significant number of votes were erased because some counties relayed terrible data. You cannot make this up—we’re told not to question the results. Still, given the shenanigans over the past two cycles, I can’t blame people who have questions, even in elections where we lost handily. Too many people have tripped up (via USA Today):
A TikTok video shared on Instagram Dec. 7 features a Fox News broadcast from the night of the election. It shows Walker's vote total momentarily increase from 49.7% to 49.8%, before returning to 49.7%.
"Hershel (sic) Walker drops from 1,417,926 to 1,407,578 on live T.V. at the same time Warnock increases," reads text overlaid on the video.
"They did it again," reads the Instagram post's caption. "Does anyone really believe we have election integrity?"
[…]
Lauren Easton, an AP spokesperson, told USA TODAY via email that the mistake was not an indication of fraud.
"Human error caused us to briefly provide incorrect, overstated numbers for less than a minute on Tuesday night," Easton said. "As soon as we saw the mistake, we quickly returned to providing the numbers reported by the state."
Katie noted how in Arizona, some local news outlets posted election result tests showing Democrat Katie Hobbs beating Republican Kari Lake as if the fix was in on election night. These were test runs for their election tabulation systems, and their appearing live on-air was human error. Still, these instances fan the flames of those who question our elections, which right or wrong is a constitutionally protected free speech right.
This graphic was never meant to go on air — the numbers were only part of a test. The station has taken steps to make sure this cannot happen again.
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) October 28, 2022
We’d all love to know why @FOX10Phoenix had a widget tonight on their broadcast declaring that Katie Hobbs won the election with a very specific number of votes? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/GqRwVLSJdG
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) October 28, 2022