ABC has sparked wild conspiracy theories after mistakenly airing election results for Pennsylvania.
The results appeared on the ticker along the bottom of the screen during a broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix by ABC local affiliate WNEP-TV on Sunday.
It showed Kamala Harris taking the state with 52 percent of the votes, while Donald Trump’s share was 47 percent.
It instantly prompted claims of election rigging on social media, with one person tweeting: ‘The cheat is on.’
WNEP-TV said that the numbers came up on the screen in ‘error’ and that they had been ‘randomly generated’ as part of a test ahead of election night on November 5.
The results appeared on the ticker along the bottom of the screen of the ABC local affiliate WNEP-TV early Sunday evening during a broadcast of the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix. The ticker showed Kamala Harris taking the state with 52 percent of the votes, while Donald Trump ‘s share was 47 percent
Kamala Harris greets supporters before speaking during a Get Out the Vote rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 30
Trump is currently leading the state by 0.6 percentage points in an average of the top polls by Real Clear Politics.
Biden won Pennsylvania by the narrowest of margins in 2020, beating Trump by 80,555 votes or 1.17 percent.
Democrats have accused Trump and his allies of laying the groundwork to contest a potential loss by stoking doubts about the election’s legitimacy.
He has portrayed Democrats as cheaters, called mail-in ballots corrupt and urged supporters to vote in such large numbers to render the election ‘too big to rig.’
In response to the WNEP-TV broadcast, one person wrote on X: ‘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?’
Another said: ‘ABC is cheating for the Democrat machine. Their license should be revoked.’
In a statement the broadcaster 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 sent out to help news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night.
Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29
‘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.’
ABC has already been attacked by Trump and his supporters overs its alleged bias during the presidential debate on September 10.
Conservative commentators claimed that the moderators continually fact-checked Trump while giving Harris a free pass.
In addition, an anonymous whistleblower alleged ABC handed questions to the Harris campaign ahead of the debate.
