A northern Virginia county is acknowledging that it underreported President Joe Biden’s margin of victory there over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election by about 4,000 votes. It was the first detailed accounting of the errors that initially became public as part of a criminal case. Thursday’s admission from the Prince William County Office of Elections comes a week after prosecutors dropped charges against the county’s former registrar. Counts were also off by lesser margins in a Senate and congressional race. In a statement, the county’s current director of elections emphasized that the mistakes did not come close to affecting the outcome of any race.

A Northern Virginia county acknowledged it underreported President Joe Biden’s margin of victory over Donald Trump there in the 2020 presidential election by about 4,000 votes, the first detailed accounting of errors that came to light in 2022 as part of a criminal case.

The admission Thursday from the Prince William County Office of Elections comes a week after prosecutors from the Virginia Attorney General’s office dropped charges against the county’s former registrar, Michele White.

Counts were also off in races for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, though by lesser margins.

In a statement, the county’s current registrar, Eric Olsen, emphasized that the mistakes did not come close to affecting the outcome of any race and “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.”

  • TWeaKEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    That’s interesting to me. Does the requirement for a republic prevent the possibility of a true direct democracy?

    • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      It could, depending on how the court is feeling about it that day, and on whether or not congress writes legislation to provide specifics to just what Article IV, sec4 means. (This seems to have been one of those clauses the framers left as a to-do for future legislators to fill out)