Virginia county finds 4,000 misreported 2020 votes, shorting Biden

Election officials in Virginia’s Prince William County have acknowledged roughly 4,000 votes were misreported in former President Trump’s favor during the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden went on to win the state.

A release from the county’s Office of Elections announced Trump incorrectly received 2,327 extra votes, while Biden was shorted 1,648 votes.  

The U.S. Senate candidates for the state in both parties received too few votes, and a Republican House candidate who won his race was shorted just less than 300 votes.  

“The reporting errors were presumably a consequence of the results tapes not being programmed to a format that was compatible with state reporting requirements. Attempts to correct this issue appear to have created errors,” said Eric Olsen, director of elections for the county. 

The errors “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,” Olsen added.  

Biden ultimately won Virginia by more than 450,000 votes, and the misreporting issues did not meet the 1 percent threshold to trigger a recount, according to the Prince William County office.  

The insights about the misreported figures stem from a case involving the county’s former registrar, Michele White, who was charged in 2022 with corrupt conduct, making a false statement and neglect of duty relating to the 2020 election. Those charges have since been dropped, the Associated Press reports.

Olsen, in his statement, stressed that Virginians should have faith in the state’s election systems, and spotlighted that improvements have been made to correct the process for future contests.  

“Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct. 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.”