THIS IS the awkward moment a TV channel mistakenly aired an election result – announcing Kamala Harris as the winner of a key swing state.
The ABC station showed the VP with a 52 per cent win in Pennsylvania – and a decisive ‘tick’ next to her name.
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During a broadcast for the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix by ABC affiliate WNEP-TV, a Harris v Trump graphic could be seen along the bottom of the screen.
It showed the Democratic hopeful with over half of the votes, Trump at 47 per cent and a note saying every precinct had reported back with their results.
Despite assurances from WNEP that it was simply a test gone wrong ahead of the big day next week – the blunder prompted claims of election rigging on social media.
One person wrote online: “ABC is cheating for the Democrat machine. Their license should be revoked.”
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Another added: “If the same graphics pop up after November 5th, with the same percentages & the same vote count, it’ll be EXTREMELY suspicious.”
And someone wrote: “The cheat is on.”
The Democrats have accused Trump and his supporters of already laying the groundwork to contest the 2024 election if he loses – as happened in 2020.
Trump has described the Dems as cheaters, dubbed mail-in ballots “corrupt” and urged his followers to go to the polls in vast numbers so the election is “too big to rig”.
And ABC has faced accusations of bias from Trump’s camp in the past – with a debate between the former president and Harris on September 10.
Moderators were accused of unfairly targeting Trump and going easy on Harris during the only head-to-head debate between the pair.
The station told the Daily Mail: “Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did”.
They said the figures shown were “randomly generated test results sent out to help news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night”.
“The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count”, the station insisted.
They added: “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.”
Pennsylvania is one of seven crucial swing states that could potentially decide the race next week.
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are currently too close to call.
Their combined 93 electoral college votes will push either Trump or Harris over the finish line.
But polling shows both hopefuls are within just two points of each other in the undecided states.
Pennsylvania in particular is showing just a 0.8 per cent margin in Trump’s favour, according to polling from RealClearPolitics.
In 2020 Joe Biden won with a 1.17 per cent margin in Pennsylvania – securing 20 electoral college votes needed to win the White House.
