EXCLUSIVE: NV SOS Updates NV GOP On Data Discrepancy Found In Election Reports

The Globe is the first to receive the email communications between Nevada GOP lawyer Brian Hardy and the Nevada Secretary of State’s office in regards to a data error found between the November 7 and November 8 General Election Turnout reports. The error, uncovered late Friday night, was during the last days of counting mail ballots and indicated that 28,269 were unaccounted for.

Both the Secretary of State’s office and the NV GOP worked over the weekend and found that the 28,269 ballots were not “missing” as reported on social media, but a clerical error of a “cut and paste” that was eventually fixed with a count upload by the evening of November 8.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Di Chiara writes:

This was a clerical error and at no point did any election results change based on this error. Essentially we were sent a dataset from Clark County that was inaccurate, and that data went into one of our regular reports. I confirmed with Clark County earlier today that the error was an incorrect copy/paste of data into one specific cell.

The reports that were referenced are state reports that we manually assemble, and the data we have for Clark County is manually assembled by Clark County. We release this information, posting these reports multiple times per day, so that the public can have up-to-date information about turnout, vote method, etc. This reporting is entirely separate from the unofficial election results reported at results.nv.gov and is part of an entirely separate system. Results files are sent via secure ftp from counties directly into a state server, where they are loaded in to our Election Night Reporting application; the numbers come from entirely different places. Additionally, because these reports are regularly updated, the incorrect information was only available until the report was updated. By later in the day on 11/8, the discrepancy was fixed when we uploaded our next report.

Chiara included a summary and screenshots of the reports:

The Clark County 11/7AM reporting file contained data reflected in our 11/7 11am report, with a “mail ballots returned and accepted” number for the Democratic Party of 184,760. As you can see, when the counties send us their data they only fill in the cells with their county-specific numbers.

 

Next up is the 11/7pm report from Clark County. This report contained the error: it included the number of “154,777” for Dem mail ballots returned and accepted.

This information, sent by Clark County the night of 11/7, was included in our 11/8 morning report. The following screenshot will show you where the error happened. A Clark County staff member thought that they had successfully copied the correct number for Dem Mail Ballots Returned & Accepted, when they had in fact failed to copy that number. As a result, when they pasted the number into the report, it still reflected what was previously copied: the “Total Mail Ballots Returned” for “Other” parties, which was accurately listed at 154,777. As you can see from the screenshot above, as well as in the screenshots that you previously provided me, the 11/8 8am report accurately reflects the numbers that Clark County sent us, which includes that mistake.

The next screenshot is from the 11/8pm report that Clark County sent us.

As you can see, the numbers in this file accurately reflect the actual amount of Mail Ballots Returned & Accepted for Dems, which is 186,522: 1,762 ballots higher than what was in the 11/7AM report. These numbers were included in our 11/8 nightly report, which replaced the previous (inaccurate) one.

Again, these numbers would not have been reflective of the results available at results.nv.gov. Anyone who checked that website looking at results before and after each of the files that Clark County sent would have found the same slow and steady raise in numbers as ballots continued to be tabulated.

NV GOP Chairman Michael McDonald told The Globe, “The NV GOP can appreciate that mistakes are made, but this did not have to happen. This latest glitch is further evidence that elections must end on election day and the elimination of universal mail ballots is warranted. Now, what must be done is  down is at the legislative level– where Democratic and Republican lawmakers work together and advance bills that will have elections end on election day through the continuous counting of ballots so Nevadans, and the rest of the country, can trust our election results.”