Is an ABC News affiliate's airing of apparent Pennsylvania election results that declared Vice President Kamala Harris the winner proof of election interference? No, that's not true: The station, WNEP-TV, already stated online that the displayed election results were from a test and were not real numbers. The station broadcasted them accidentally. The person who posted a social media video about this slip-up called the video "satire" in the post's caption.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on Instagram on October 31, 2024. The post's caption made clear that the content was not meant to be taken seriously:
For my accounts sake, this video is strictly satire and is not made for educational purposes whatsoever.
#happyhalloween #wideawake#voiceofchange #dumptrump #Trump#kamala #reels #America #thursday#thursdaythoughts #spookyseason#election
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Fri Nov. 1 15:34:11 2024 UTC)
Some online users reshared (archived here) the information as authentic or suggested (archived here) that the accidental posting was done so with malicious intent.
The account owner appeared in the video below an image of a New York Post entry (archived here) on X that read, "ABC mistakenly airs election results declaring Harris winner of key swing state."
The owner of this account, @voice_of_change_, said at the start of the video:
Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist if you want, but it's kinda hard to call an election that hasn't even happened yet.
Clicking on the link in the New York Post entry on X led to this October 30, 2024, New York Post article (archived here), titled, "ABC station mistakenly airs election results declaring Harris winner of key swing state." The article reported that the specific ABC station that mistakenly published the Pennsylvania election results was, "ABC local affiliate WNEP-TV."
The website for WNEP-TV posted an October 27, 2024, statement (archived here) that said the broadcast of the numbers "was an error by WNEP." The station wrote that the numbers "were not reflective of any actual vote count" but had been "randomly generated" to enable "news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night."
The statement read in full:
PENNSYLVANIA, USA -- 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.
As of November 1, 2024, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Election Results website (archived here) did not display any results from the 2024 presidential election, as seen in the screenshot below. (Live unofficial election results will not appear until after 8 p.m. on Election Day, according to the site.)
(Source: Electionreturns.pa.gov screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 15:45:11 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories contacted WNEP-TV for an updated statement concerning the claim that the station accidentally broadcast test results. If a response is received, this fact check will be updated.
When this fact check was written, Poynter had reviewed the same claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks covering the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be read here.
