A news station in Pennsylvania was forced to apologize for flashing up the US presidential election results in the state as part of a “test” that wasn’t supposed to be seen by viewers.
WNEP, an ABC affiliate, flashed up the results for Pennsylvania during its broadcast of the Formula 1 race in Mexico City and they were on screen for several minutes.
You’ll never guess who “won”.
Kamala Harris, of course, beating Trump by 52 per cent to 47 per cent of the vote.
According to the test run, Kamala received 3,293,712 votes compared to Trump’s 2,997,793.
After viewers expressed confusion at what they were witnessing, the news station was forced to explain what happened.
“Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did,” said the station.
“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.”
“WNEP regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion. We have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again.”
No votes are actually counted in Pennsylvania until after 8pm on election day.
WNEP is owned by Tegna Inc., the chairman of which is Howard D. Elias, a longtime Democrat donor.
Its President and CEO is Mike Steib, who donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and has also donated to several Democrat PACs.
Don’t worry though, it was just a test!