An ABC affiliate sparked major backlash after the station appeared to air Pennsylvania’s 2024 election results over a week before Election Day.
A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, shows an election results ticker at the bottom of the screen on Sunday during a televised broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix on WNEP-TV, which is a local affiliate of ABC.
In the video, the election results showed Vice President Kamala Harris with 52 percent of the vote and former President Donald Trump with 47 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Following the television station’s error, multiple social media users claimed that the incident pointed to potential cheating in the 2024 presidential election.
One social media user tweeted, “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?”
Another social media user commented, “ABC is cheating for the Democrat machine. Their license should be revoked.” Meanwhile, a third social media user wrote, “And just like that, ABC reveals they are part of the cheating by accidentally showing what they called their test election results on live TV. Kamala wins PA by 5%. Does anyone believe these liars anymore?”
READ MORE: Chinese election interference targeting GOP, report shows
Addressing Sunday’s incident, WNEP-TV released a statement, saying, “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.”
WNEP-TV explained that the election results displayed during the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix “should not have appeared” on television and claimed that the incident was “an error.”
“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,” WNEP-TV added. “The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count.”
WNEP-TV explained that Pennsylvania’s election laws do not allow mail-in ballots to be “taken out of their envelopes until 7:00 a.m. on Election Day” and that no votes in Pennsylvania would be counted until the state’s polls close at 8:00 p.m. next Tuesday.
WNEP-TV told viewers that it “regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion” caused by Sunday’s incident. The ABC affiliate also said it had “taken steps” to make sure that the broadcast error does not happen again in the future.
