In today’s heightened atmosphere, a tweet like this from New York Times 2020 campaign reporter Trip Gabriel reporting that Allegheny County officials are taking the day off for “administrative work” is one that could blow up in a really big way, which is why it’s important to get the context 100% correct.
The proper context, however, is nowhere to be found:
Allegheny County, PA still has 35,413 uncounted mail-in ballots, but elections staff is taking today off for "administrative work" and will not resume count until Friday. "I can't get an answer as to why,'' says @bethanyhallam, a member of county elections board.
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 5, 2020
For that, we need to turn to local journo Ryan Deto who explained what exactly is going on:
Not just a day off. 29k of 35k left can't be legally counted until Fri. due to court order. 29k are replacement ballots bc a contracted company delivered wrong ballots last month. Election return board HAS to legally meet tmrw before counting can resume https://t.co/1tvsWBlZiC
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) November 5, 2020
Maybe Twitter should censor this NYT journo for spreading fake news?
This tweet is filled with incomplete information. it's not just a day off. County CAN'T LEGALLY COUNT 29k of 35k ballots today due to court order, bc a contracting company sent out wrong mail-in ballots last month and they needed to be replaced. https://t.co/DQvLcIXiUw
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) November 5, 2020
More here:
Background on those 29,000 ballots, which had to be resent earlier due to an error from contracted company https://t.co/H8FGFf1IxI
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) November 5, 2020
Gabriel did acknowledge the additional information, but 20 minutes later:
Per email from county to elex board, those 35,413 include about 29,000 ballots sent to voters who first got wrong ballots (they have to be double-checked to ensure no one voted twice). Also, unscannable ballots & some missing dates or illegible signatures…2/
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 5, 2020
The elections staff is apparently addressing some of these issues in its "administrative work" today. 3/3
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) November 5, 2020
But because his first tweet is still up, it’s now going viral. He should delete it pronto.
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