CORRECTION, Jan. 16, 2024: Republican Senate candidate Daniel Gade was shorted by 107 votes in the 2020 election, according to the Prince William County, Virginia, Office of Elections. An earlier version of this article had a different candidate’s name.
One Virginia county has revealed that its results for the 2020 presidential election were incorrect.
In a statement on Monday, the Prince William County Office of Elections confirmed that “election results were improperly reported by the previous administration during the 2020 election.”
“The reporting errors were presumably a consequence of the results tapes not being programmed to a format that was compatible with state reporting requirements,” Eric Olsen, director of elections for the county, said in the statement. “Attempts to correct this issue appear to have created errors.
“The reporting errors did not consistently favor one party or candidate but were likely due to a lack of proper planning, a difficult election environment, and human error.”
The most significant error was in the presidential contest between then-President Donald Trump and then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, with Trump incorrectly receiving an extra 2,327 votes and Biden shorted 1,648 votes.
Election officials in Virginia’s Prince William County have acknowledged roughly 4,000 votes were misreported in former President Trump’s favor during the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden went on to win the state.https://t.co/F5ZnDbU8oT pic.twitter.com/6JORo3cJIv
— WAVY TV 10 (@WAVY_News) January 16, 2024
Also affected was the Senate contest between Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Daniel Gade. According to Olsen’s statement, Warner received 1,589 fewer votes than he should have, while Gade was shorted by 107 votes.
Meanwhile, Republican candidate Rob Wittman was shorted by 293 votes in his congressional race against Democrat Qasim Rashid.
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None of the mistakes affected the final results, with Biden winning his race by over 450,000 votes in Virginia, Warner by over 500,000 votes and Wittman by 80,000 votes.
“Other contests had negligible differences or no discrepancies at all,” Olsen’s statement added.
The revelations are a result of a criminal investigation into the county’s former registrar, Michele White, who since 2022 had faced a charge of corrupt conduct and making a false statement, both felonies, and neglect of duty, a misdemeanor.
However, The Associated Press reported that the felony charges were dropped last month after the prosecution said a key witness changed his story. White still faces the misdemeanor neglect of duty charge, according to the AP.
Despite the errors coming to light over three years after the elections took place, Olsen’s statement insisted that Virginia’s elections systems are reliable.
“Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct,” he said in the statement. “They do not reflect a purposeful attempt to undermine the integrity of the electoral process and the investigation into this matter ended with that conclusion.
“We have worked to bring transparency to the reporting of an election that happened three years ago. This dedication remains and applies to all current and future elections.
“The public should have faith in the thousands of tireless public servants and volunteers who preserve and protect our democracy.”
