The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 19, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Prince William County, Virginia announced January 11th that human and data errors in the 2020 election resulted in an overcounting of votes for Donald Trump, and an undercounting of totals for Joe Biden.
A statement issued by Prince William County’s election director said Biden gained 1,648 votes, while Trump lost 2,327, not significantly affecting Biden’s over 450,000 vote margin statewide.
The Prince William Times reports that after the county registrar resigned, her replacement, Director of Elections Eric Olsen, discovered the discrepancies. A state investigation found that inaccurate programming of voting machines in precincts with voters from two different Congressional districts accounted for most of the errors. Human error resulted in one town being counted twice, and another not counted at all.
The errors also affected totals for U.S. Senator Mark Warner and his opponent, and U.S. Congressman Rob Whittman and his opponent. Neither outcome was significantly affected.
Felony charges were brought against the previous registrar, but have since been dropped. County and state officials say they have corrected the programming errors and added layers of verification to the process.
Election Director Eric Olsen said of the mistakes, “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 links to the local reporting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Prince William County – PWC Office of Elections Releases Reporting Data in Michele White Election Trial
Prince William Times – Criminal charges against former Prince William elections chief — now dropped —stemmed from vote tabulation errors
Prince William Times – Former Prince William elections chief cleared of all criminal charges
Virginia Mercury – 2020 election error in Prince William County benefited Trump, officials reveal
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