President Joe Biden was shorted approximately 4,000 votes that were incorrectly reported in former President Donald Trump’s favor in Prince William County, Virginia, during the 2020 election, according to county election officials.
In a release on Thursday, the county’s Office of Elections said Trump incorrectly received about 2,327 extra votes and Biden was shorted 1,648 votes.
The Democrat Senate candidate received too few votes by 1,589, while the Republican Senate candidate received too few votes by 107; the Democrat ultimately won by more than 500,000 votes.
A Republican House candidate who won his race was also shorted by 293 votes but won by more than 80,000 votes.
“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, county director of elections, said in a statement. “Attempts to correct this issue appear to have created errors.”
He added that the 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.”
In 2022, the county’s former registrar, Michele White, was criminally charged with corrupt conduct, making a false statement and neglect of duty in relation to the 2020 election. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the charges have since been dropped.
Calling the incident “unfortunate,” Olsen stressed that Virginians should have faith in the integrity of the state’s elections.
“Since 2020, improvements have been made,” he said. “The entire PWC [Prince William County] Office of Elections leadership group has changed. The process for reporting and validating results has been updated and improved.
“Critically, all PWC results tapes are now published online for public review. The Virginia Department of Elections has also adopted an updated reporting system with additional results validation standards.”
“Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct,” he continued. “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.”
Biden won Virginia by more than 450,000 votes in 2020 and the misreporting issue did not meet the 1% threshold needed to trigger a recount, according to the release.
Nicole Wells | editorial.wells@newsmax.com
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/virginia-joe-biden-donald-trump/2024/01/15/id/1149666
