Is a drop in Dan Bilzerian's vote tally evidence of cheating on behalf of Rep. Randy Fine in Florida's 6th Congressional District Republican primary on Aug. 18, 2026? No, that's not true: Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart told Lead Stories that the election night results reported to the Florida Department of State were always accurate, but an issue with the online public display of the results occurred after a candidate withdrew from the race the day before the election. She said the display issue was fixed within 20-30 minutes.
The claim appeared in a post and images (archived here) by Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) on X on Aug. 18, 2026. It read:
They clearly cheated, they literally took away my votes
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @DanBilzerian on X.)
With his screenshots from NBC News (above), Bilzerian is questioning why his vote count dropped from 8,191 votes, with 27.3% of the expected vote counted, to 6,383 votes, with 42.2% of the expected vote counted.
In an Aug. 20, 2026, email to Lead Stories, Lenhart responded to questions from Lead Stories about Bilzerian's claims and what produced the results that appeared online:
The day before the election, a candidate withdrew from the Congressional District 6 race. Our election night reporting to the Florida Department of State was always accurate, but the suppressed results for this candidate shifted our reported display for the public online. The issue was resolved within 20-30 minutes. All of our precincts were fully reported at 8:37 PM. We issued a statement explaining the situation during our results reporting for those watching locally, although it seems that message did not reach large media outlets. Last-minute changes during an election, especially a candidate's withdrawal, can be disruptive and cause issues. There is very little time to test the public display of our election night results when a candidate withdraws the day before. We are working with our vendors to improve processes and testing capabilities to handle any last-minute changes that may occur in the future.
In her response to Lead Stories, Lenhart noted some caveats that should be remembered whenever viewing online election returns:
It's important to remember that election night results are not final results. In Florida, provisional ballot voters and those who voted by mail and returned their ballot with a missing signature, or signature difference, have two days after an election to provide evidence to support their eligibility in the election. Those provisional ballots, along with any referred vote-by-mail ballots are reviewed by Canvassing Boards after the election. The circumstances surrounding each individual ballot are reviewed to ensure every valid vote is counted. During General elections and Presidential Preference Primary elections, our overseas voters have an additional 10 days to return their ballots. The election is not certified until all of these ballots are verified and all votes are tabulated.
According to unofficial election night results (archived here) as of Aug. 20, 2026, Bilzerian finished second in Florida's 6th District Republican primary to incumbent Rep. Randy Fine, who received 57.6% of the vote. Bilzerian received 18.9%:
(Image source: Florida Election Watch website)
Florida's statewide election results are available here (archived here). The site is run by the Florida Department of State.
