Illinois News Station Mistakenly Airs Election Results Day Before Primary, Showing Joe Biden Victory

The local Illinois news station WCIA mistakenly aired Election Day results on Monday, showing former Vice President Joe Biden (D) winning, the day before the state’s Tuesday primary election.

A video went viral on Monday, showing WCIA airing Tuesday’s election results during a Monday showing of The Price is Right. The results showed Biden defeating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) by just over 93,000 votes.

“While watching The Price is Right our station accidentally runs tomorrow’s election results … its [sic] Monday our election in Illinois is tomorrow,” the woman, Sherry Daughtery, wrote alongside a video:

She updated her post with a statement from Mark Maxwell, the station’s Capitol Bureau Chief, who said it was nothing more than a “routine test” rehearsal. Airing the dry run, he said, was an error. He stressed that the numbers were not based on any actual polling returns and added that the station “never intended to give the wrong information or wrong impression”:

We do routine test rehearsals before every election to make sure the graphics work properly and to give directors some practice. The error was in putting the dry run on air. That shouldn’t have happened and we’re looking into it. Obviously, we never intended to give the wrong information or wrong impression. None of those numbers were based on any real polling returns. Since your post is being widely shared, I’d appreciate it if you would consider updating the original post so people don’t get the wrong idea.

Breitbart News reached out to Maxwell, who verified that he did, in fact, make a “truthful” statement.

Officials in Illinois have not canceled the state’s primary election, despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker taking drastic measures by announcing the closure of restaurants and bars across the state as fears over the coronavirus continue to mount.

Pritzker remained confident in holding the election as scheduled, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that officials have been “extra-careful at all of our polling places.”

 “Everybody is practicing good hygiene. And we’re making sure that it’s safe for people to come and vote,” he said on Sunday. “The schools are closed, so many people will be voting in schools. And there won’t be big crowds.”