Tuesday morning, several hours before the polls close in New Hampshire, Fox News reportedly published fake, finalized New Hampshire primary election returns on its website.
Mashable captured screenshots of Fox News’ erroneously published false election results, which can be seen below.
The inaccurate report mistakenly stated that 100 percent of voting precincts had already reported their outcomes, despite the fact that the majority of New Hampshire polls do not close until 7 p.m. EST.
Fox News also included fabricated vote tallies and estimates as to how many delegates each candidate had obtained.
Mashable’s Jason Abbruzzese wrote, “Who, in Fox’s fantasy world, takes home the winning title? With 100% of the ‘vote’ in, Donald Trump took home 28% of the delegates, a solid plurality over his closest rivals: Marco Rubio (15%) and Ted Cruz (12%).”
On the Democratic side, Fox News’ false returns gave the Democratic New Hampshire primary to Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders with 53 percent support over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 43 percent.
Voting began at a few New Hampshire precincts shortly after midnight early Tuesday morning, meaning some real results were already in at the time at which Fox News published its false results.
According to USA Today’s Paul Singer, “In Dixville Notch, residents did their traditional first voting just after midnight, bringing smiles to the faces of Bernie Sanders and John Kasich. Sanders swept Hillary Clinton in Dixville Notch, 4-0, while Kasich topped Donald Trump, 3 votes to 2. In nearby Millsfield, Ted Cruz won the Republican vote over Trump, 9-3. Several other candidates got one vote apiece. Clinton beat Sanders, 2 votes to 1.”
He added, “In Hart’s Location, population 43, Kasich bested Trump again, 5 votes to 4, with Chris Christie gathering 2 votes. Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio got one vote each. Sanders edged Clinton, 12 votes to 7. Mark Stewart Greenstein, who calls himself a ‘liberty-leaning Democrat,’ got 2 votes, the Union Leader reported.”
Later on Tuesday morning, Fox News updated its website and removed the false election results.
Editor's note: This article, written by Barry Donegan, originally published on Truth in Media on February 9, 2016, and has been slightly modified for publication on IVN.
Photo credit: Fivethirtyeight.com