Election magic: Democratic candidate gets excess votes; Independent candidate loses votes

A Democratic candidate won more votes than there were voters in this month’s midterm elections due to a “reporting error,” reported NBC News last week. 

Democratic New Hampshire incumbent Senator Maggie Hassan, who beat Republican challenger Donald Bolduc by nearly ten points, overshot the target in Columbia, New Hampshire when she won 1,100 votes, even though the town’s last census in 2020 registered a population of 659. 

According to NBC, which was quick to run a fact-check defending Hassan, the “reporting error” happened when Columbia town clerk Marcia Parkhurst accidentally added a 1 to Hassan’s 106 votes, making the tally 1,106. 

“Apparently when I was transferring the results from one copy to the copy that I was going to send to the SOS, I wrote the ‘1’ twice,” Parkhurst told Associated Press. “Obviously with only 309 votes cast, there couldn’t possibly be 1,106 votes for one person.” 

“Unfortunately, I’m human and make mistakes especially after an almost 15-hour day,” Parkhurst wrote. “There was no ‘voter fraud’ as people are talking about.” 

New Hampshire’s secretary of state chalked it down to “a simple typo.” 

The error has since been corrected, though it was not enough to significantly dent Hassan’s victory. 

In another seeming reporting error, Independent New York senatorial candidate Diane Sare found she ended the race with less votes than she began. 

Sare, a member of the independent LaRouche Party, lost decisively to winner Chuck Schumer, who beat Republican challenger Joe Pinion by over 13 points. While not challenging the result – which had Sare winning less than a percentage point of votes – Sare wondered aloud on Twitter the day after the election why she ended the race with 29,954 votes when she was reported to have over 50,000 votes the night before. 

The former Democrat was not only excluded from the senatorial debates after failing to collect a certain number of signatures, but Sare’s supporters reported being told by pollsters that Sare was not a candidate, according to LaRouche Pub.  

Sare was one of the names on a blacklist published by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation during the summer, which listed the names and addresses of those whom the government considered “Russian propagandists.” Ukraine added Sare’s name to its hit list after the politician criticized the government and its neo-Nazi elements, including the infamous Azov battalion. 

Hassan and Sare were not the only oddities in this month’s midterm elections. As reported by America’s Frontline News, three dead Democrats won re-election in what has been described as the ultimate election victory. 

In the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, Republican city attorney candidate Dan Smith found himself running against Democrat Simon Silva who died of cancer in September. Despite being aware of his death, the Democratic Party continued to promote Silva and campaign for him against Smith in the months since. Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salvas had a Silva campaign sign in her yard, and the Democratic Party continues to list Silva in its list of endorsements, according to KPBS.  

"Misinformation by perpetuating this fraud on the voters of Chula Vista is potentially causing the expenditure of millions of dollars, which is a substantial amount of taxpayer funds," Smith wrote in a letter to the local party.  

As of this report, Silva has a 149-point lead against Smith. If Silva wins, the local council will be forced to hold a special election which will cost taxpayers an estimated $2 million.  

In Tennessee, Democratic State Representative Barbara Cooper kept her seat against Independent Michael Porter, even though Cooper died in October at the age of 93.  

Similarly, in Fetterman’s Pennsylvania, Democratic State Representative Tony DeLuca won re-election in a landslide despite dying in October from lymphoma.