On Wednesday, a significant error was discovered that could affect the results of the presidential election in Arizona: Edison Research data, which major news organizations including The New York Times utilize to report voting results, reported that 98% of precincts in Arizona had been counted when in fact only 86% had been counted.
New York Times editor Patrick LaForge tweeted, “An error was found in the data feed from Edison Research (used by @nytimes and other news organizations) for Arizona results – 86 percent of ballots have been counted, not 98%. NYT has not called the state for Biden, though he still leads.”
An error was found in the data feed from Edison Research (used by @nytimes and other news organizations) for Arizona results — 86 percent of ballots have been counted, not 98 percent. NYT has not called the state for Biden, though he still leads. https://t.co/mPDkiKsExQ
— Patrick LaForge (@palafo) November 4, 2020
Asked what percent of the remaining ballots are mail-in and what percent were cast on election day, Laforge responded, “According to the link, 100 percent of the absentee ballots were already counted, but I think I’d wait for the data outlet to fix its data before taking that to the bank. Arizona is just waking up (time difference) and presumably officials there will be clarifying matters today.”
According to the link, 100 percent of the absentee ballots were already counted, but I think I'd wait for the data outlet to fix its data before taking that to the bank. Arizona is just waking up (time difference) and presumably officials there will be clarifying matters today.
— Patrick LaForge (@palafo) November 4, 2020
“According to the Times, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has won 51 percent of the vote compared to President Trump’s 47.6 percent. More than 2.7 million votes have been reported,” The Hill noted.
National Journal editor-in-chief Jeff DuFour noted: “This gives some credence to the Trump camp’s argument in a call with reporters that it expects to pull ahead in Arizona, because most of the outstanding vote is in Trump-friendly territory.”
This gives some credence to the Trump camp's argument in a call with reporters that it expects to pull ahead in Arizona, because most of the outstanding vote is in Trump-friendly territory.
— Jeff Dufour (@dcdufour) November 4, 2020
The Daily Wire reported that after Fox News called the Arizona race for Biden, GOP governor Doug Ducey was furious:
Outrage erupted online late on Tuesday night after Fox News called the presidential race in Arizona for Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden, a call that many believed was too early and ultimately led to a response from the state’s governor.
Governor Doug Ducey, without specifically naming the network, responded to the call that Biden had won the state, which had not been reported yet by the other networks.
“It’s far too early to call the election in Arizona,” Ducey wrote. “Election Day votes are not fully reported, and we haven’t even started to count early ballots dropped off at the polls. In AZ, we protected Election Day. Let’s count the votes — all the votes — before making declarations.”
Senior Trump campaign official Jason Miller wrote on Twitter: “Fox News is a complete outlier in calling Arizona, and other media outlets should not follow suit. There are still 1M+ Election Day votes out there waiting to be counted – we pushed our people to vote on Election Day, but now Fox News is trying to invalidate their votes!”
“We only need 61% of the outstanding, uncounted Election Day votes in Arizona to win,” Miller continued. “These votes are coming from ‘our counties,’ and the 61% figure is very doable based on what our other Election Day votes are looking like. @FoxNews should retract their call immediately.”