Virginia county revises 2020 election vote totals after discovering 'reporting errors' that miscalculated thousands of votes

A northern Virginia county acknowledged last week that roughly 4,000 votes in the 2020 presidential contest were misallocated.

The Prince William County Office of Elections announced last week that President Joe Biden was shorted 1,648 votes in the 2020 presidential contest, while former President Donald Trump's "incorrectly received an extra 2,327 votes."

The initial vote total said Biden received 142,863 votes while Trump received 81,222. But a new revision found that Biden actually received 144,511 votes while Trump received only 78,895.

In a statement, the county's director of elections, Eric Olsen, spoke about the "errors" using passive language.

"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," he said.

Olsen emphasized, however, that 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." Indeed, Biden won Virginia by more than 450,000 votes in 2020, meaning the revision makes no difference in the outcome of the contest.

Still, Olsen did not explain what "human error" helped contribute to the incorrect vote tabulations.

Unfortunately, the presidential contest was not the only impacted race.

Both U.S. Senate candidates received too few votes, while Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) was shorted 293 votes. None of the errors made a difference in the outcome of the elections.

"Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct," Olsen said. "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 worked to bring transparency to the reporting of an election that happened three years ago. This dedication remains and applies to all current and future elections."

The miscalculations were discovered as part of the investigation into former Prince William County Registrar Michele White, who in 2022 was charged with corrupt conduct, making a false statement — both of which are felonies — and neglect of duty. Investigators released few details about the case but alleged that White altered the election results.

Last month, prosecutors dropped the felony charges against White. The third misdemeanor charge was dropped this month. The case fell apart, prosecutors said, after "several of the witnesses interviewed unexpectedly changed their statements."

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