As Donald Trump continues to pursue the lie that his 2020 presidential election defeat was the result of electoral fraud, elections officials in Virginia have admitted some results there were improperly reported – resulting in an artificially inflated total for Trump while votes were actually taken away from Joe Biden.
Eric Olsen, director of elections for Prince William county, said: “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. 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 result, Olsen said, was that Biden received 1,648 fewer votes than he should have received and Trump received 2,327 too many.
The error did not affect the result in Prince William county or in Virginia overall.
In the county, Biden beat Trump by more than 61,000 votes. In the state, on his way to victory in the national popular vote by more than 7m ballots and in the electoral college by 306-232, Biden won by more than 450,000.
Errors affected other 2020 races in Prince William county, which sits south-west of Washington DC and includes Manassas, the site of two major American civil war battles and Barack Obama’s final pre-election rally in 2008.
For US Senate, the sitting Democratic senator Mark Warner received 1,589 votes fewer than he should have and his Republican challenger, Daniel Gade, was short by 107. Statewide, Warner won by more than 500,000 votes.
In the US House, the Republican Rob Wittman was short by 293 votes in Prince William county but won Virginia’s first district by more than 80,000.
Olsen said the errors did not meet the threshold which would trigger a recount.
Saying improvements had been made to county elections management, he alluded to threats to elections officials across the US that have been fueled by Trump’s voter fraud lie.
“Over the past three years,” Olsen said, “the 2020 election has been the subject of audits, recounts and investigations. Election officials have continued to work diligently in the face of extreme stress and threats to our health and safety.
“Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct. 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.”
In 2022, Michele White, the former registrar in Prince William county, was indicted on charges of corrupt conduct, making a false statement and willful neglect of duty, in connection with the 2020 election.
White said the charges were politically motivated. Jason Miyares, Virginia’s Republican attorney general, denied that – but the charges were recently dropped.
