Elections officials in Michigan and Wisconsin refused to explain Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s sudden and dramatic vote tally increase that occurred in both states Wednesday morning.
Michigan and Wisconsin state officials warned against misinformation being shared online, but wouldn’t comment on specific vote tranches that appeared to show former Vice President Joe Biden suddenly receiving more votes than President Donald Trump. The two battleground states remained tightly contested as of Wednesday afternoon, according to The New York Times.
Voter tallies from both states spiked at around 6 a.m. in favor of Biden, according to graphs of live tallies posted by FiveThirtyEight. Trump tweeted multiple times Wednesday morning claiming that officials are finding votes for Biden “all over the place.”
“I would ask everyone to not repeat misinformation,” Michigan Sec. of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters at a Wednesday press conference when asked about the tallies that appeared to overwhelmingly favor Biden.
“We’ve seen in a number of elections already this year, the use of false graphics to try to indicate that there is some sort of problem happening,” Benson continued.
However, Benson said she was unfamiliar with the specifics of the vote count released Wednesday morning. Benson’s office also would not comment on the specifics of the tally in question.
“We cannot speculate as to why the results lean one way or another,” Michigan Department of State spokesperson Aneta Kiersnowski told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “Pairs of election workers, one from each major political party, work together to tabulate ballots to ensure fairness.”
“We remain committed to counting every valid vote so that the results out of Michigan accurately reflect the will of the people,” Kiersnowski continued.
Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) public information officer Reid Magney forwarded a pre-election media advisory to the DCNF when asked for more information on Wednesday morning’s vote tally. Magney failed to explain the sudden influx of Biden votes.
“One of our big concerns is misinformation and disinformation on Election Day,” the Nov. 1 media advisory said. “We will be monitoring social media and putting out correct information when we see problems.”
The WEC tweeted a statement Wednesday saying that the state’s election counting “has gone according to law.”
Images from Decision Desk HQ, separate from FiveThirtyEight’s graphs, showing that Biden received more than 125,000 votes at once were shared widely online, but were a result of a clerical error, according to The Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Meanwhile, 170,000 votes were reported Wednesday morning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Most of the votes were reportedly Democratic.
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This article was republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
