ABC station fuels conspiracy theories after it airs fake election results declaring Kamala Harris winner

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: The internet went bonkers this weekend after a local ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania had an accidental “oops” moment that threw everyone into a tailspin.

ABC affiliate WNEP-TV somehow aired “results” for the Pennsylvania election during their broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix, showing Vice President Kamala Harris taking the state with 52% of the vote while former president Donald Trump trailed at 47%. For conspiracy theorists, this little slip-up was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

How did this happen?

It turns out that WNEP-TV’s unexpected “results” were random numbers meant to be a test run in preparation for election night on November 5. The station quickly put out a statement explaining that these numbers weren’t real and it was just a technical rehearsal to make sure their systems were ready to roll on the big night.

They insisted that the numbers were randomly generated and didn’t reflect any actual vote counts. But of course, this explanation didn’t exactly calm the waters.

WNEP’s apology was a bit of a PR scramble. They said, “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. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion.”

At the moment, Trump is leading the state by 0.8 percentage points in an average of the top polls by Real Clear Politics. It's also worth noting that Biden barely won Pennsylvania in 2020, beating Trump by 80,555 votes or 1.17 percent.

Social media goes ballistic over election fraud concerns

Within minutes, people online were declaring the incident as proof of election tampering, rigged systems, and shady media tactics.

"If the same graphics pop up after November 5th, with the same percentages & the same vote count, it'll be EXTREMELY suspicious. And the media wonders why nobody trusts them?" one posted on X.

"ABC is cheating for the Democrat machine. Their license should be revoked," another wrote.

"Did anyone watch this live? Did they say it was a test of their live reporting system? If not, then this is wild," a third user added.

"These 'accidents' only ever happen in one direction," read a comment.

"This happens every election cycle. They claim that they're just testing graphics and it slipped through but obviously we know this is a psyops because the Democrat always wins when this happens," someone else fumed.

"Her campaign and the media are keeping the 'polls' and this race 'close' so they can plausibly deny the victory to Trump. A total setup. What is going on here ABC???" another asked.

Bias accusations against ABC and voter fraud vigilance

The timing wasn’t great for WNEP—or ABC, for that matter—given that Trump and his supporters have already aimed at the network over alleged bias.

During the presidential debate on September 10, conservative commentators accused ABC moderators of giving Kamala Harris an easy pass while hitting Trump with repeated fact-checks.

And this latest incident only added fuel to those complaints, with some fans and commentators convinced that ABC has it out for Trump.

In their official response, WNEP tried to set the record straight, laying out some facts about how votes actually get counted in Pennsylvania.

"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 pm," the statement noted.

Trump and his camp have been priming their supporters to keep an eye out for any signs of foul play this election season. Since 2020, he’s consistently criticized mail-in ballots as being unreliable and has accused the Democrats of “rigging” the process. Recently, he urged his supporters to turn out in massive numbers to make the election results “too big to rig.” 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.