NJ Election Chaos: Early Vote Double-Counted in Hudson County, Was Fixed and Gave GOP Candidate Lead
Reporting problems in the race for New Jersey’s governorship are causing some concern.
According to NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki, the early vote in Hudson County, New Jersey, was “double-counted.”
Apparently, the double count had given Democratic candidate Phillip Murphy 10,732 additional votes, whereas his Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, only saw a gain of 2,842 votes.
Kornacki went on to say that the count “has now been fixed.” Nevertheless, many are concerned that such a mistake was even made in the first place.
Following the correction, Ciattarelli momentarily regained the lead.
The early vote was double-counted in Hudson County. It has now been fixed, bringing Murphy’s total down by 10,732 and Ciattarelli’s by 2,842. Ciattarelli goes back up in the statewide tally:
Ciattarelli (R): 1,177,803 (49.6%)
Murphy (D) 1,177,108 (49.6%)— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) November 3, 2021
“The early vote was double-counted in Hudson County. It has now been fixed, bringing Murphy’s total down by 10,732 and Ciattarelli’s by 2,842. Ciattarelli goes back up in the statewide tally,” Kornacki wrote on Twitter.
Various political pundits took to Twitter to voice their concerns over the reporting issue.
This is a good way to create more doubt and generate more conspiracy theories about elections https://t.co/TD0qRAqcP0
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) November 3, 2021
“This is a good way to create more doubt and generate more conspiracy theories about elections,” journalist David Harsanyi wrote.
It is extremely difficult for me to understand how states/localities can still proceed with multi-day election counts *and* not have high quality, transparent reporting on exactly what kind of votes have or have not been countedhttps://t.co/uQXdGLr6v8
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 3, 2021
“It is extremely difficult for me to understand how states/localities can still proceed with multi-day election counts *and* not have high quality, transparent reporting on exactly what kind of votes have or have not been counted,” Nate Cohn of The New York Times wrote.
Cohn’s observation seems to be the most often repeated among those commenting on the Hudson County debacle.
In the Virginia gubernatorial race, another key county also had reporting issues.
The heavily blue Fairfax County delayed reporting its early numbers, with officials announcing that they would be “rescanning” the ballots.
Oddly, the announcement of the rescanning effort didn’t come straight from Fairfax County officials; it came from Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe’s team.
Regardless, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin ended up winning the Virginia race after having made historic gains over the state’s 2020 results.
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