During this past Sunday's Formula One race, ABC's affiliate for Scranton, Pennsylvania made a huge mistake that left viewers fairly angry. As the Mexican Grand Prix was taking place, WNEP was testing its graphics for the 2024 presidential election. With Election Day less than a week away, the TV station wants to be prepared for every and any possible outcome in the battleground states.
That being said, their plan backfired in epic fashion. Some people watching the F1 race on Sunday afternoon thought WNEP was "leaking" the results of this year's election. Obviously, that's not possible considering millions of Americans haven't even voted yet.
In an effort to defuse all the speculation, WNEP issued a statement regarding its recent test. "The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count," WNEP said. "Pennsylvania law does not allow mail-in ballots to be taken out of their envelopes until 7:00 a.
m. on Election Day, and no votes of any kind will be counted in Pennsylvania until after the polls close at 8:00 p.m.
WNEP regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion. We have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again." So why is this showing up on the local ABC network.
WNEP 16. Scrolling election results before the election has taken place pic.twitter.
com/9ozHtbbcAn Will this apology from WNEP be enough to silence its furious audience? Probably not. The reality is there's no shady business taking place. The TV network just miscalculated how the public would resp.