ABC Didn’t Air 2024 US Election Results from Pennsylvania Days Early
A screenshot of an election graphic from ABC television network showed actual U.S. presidential election results from Pennsylvania days before the polls opened.
A claim that the U.S. television network ABC authentically depicted voting results from Pennsylvania in the U.S. presidential election days before the polls opened circulated on social media in late October 2024.
A post on X shared a screenshot of the alleged results and said, “How do you know ELECTION RESULTS for Pennsylvania BEFORE the election?? How do you know the EXACT number of votes? You do know YOU will be imprisoned for CHEATING when Trump wins don’t you?”
Users also shared the image on Reddit, with one commenter posting, “The Democrats are going to steal another election.” Another person said, “Something like this spreads around right before every election smh.”
(@bocavista2016 on X)
Indeed, this has happened many times previously, including during the 2016 presidential election and the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. In those instances, the display was due to an error as the networks prepared graphics and logistics for their upcoming election coverage.
This was also the case in the instance of ABC showing Pennsylvania election results during a Formula 1 broadcast on Oct. 27, 2024. We therefore have rated the claim miscaptioned.
The error occurred on a broadcast from ABC affiliate WNEP, which serves northeastern and central Pennsylvania. WNEP acknowledged the error and issued a statement:
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.
WNEP’s statement accurately reflects Pennsylvania’s Election Code.
