Fact check: Ballot counting was unaffected by Nevada livestream blackout

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY

The claim: A blackout of Nevada's ballot-counting livestream 'is one of the ways blue states steal elections'

Nevada concluded its midterm elections with a statewide split between the two political parties. While Democratic candidate Catherine Cortez Mastro won a seat in the Senate, Republican candidate Joe Lombardo won the race for governor, according to USA TODAY.

But the divided nature of the results isn't stopping baseless claims of election fraud from circulating on social media.

Livestream cameras at a ballot-counting office in Washoe County, Nevada, cut out the night of Nov. 9, remaining out until the next morning, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. Social media users are claiming this blackout was a ploy by Democrats to steal the midterm election.

A screen recording of a TikTok has been shared on Instagram, featuring a televised Fox News broadcast reporting on the blackout.

"And this is one of the ways blue states steal elections," reads text overlaid on the video by the Instagram user.

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The original TikTok garnered more than 80,000 likes in six days, while the Instagram video garnered more than 400 likes in three days. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

But the claim is false. The blackout was caused by a connectivity issue, according to a Washoe County statement. Security camera footage and access card data shows no interference with the ballots during the blackout. There is no evidence that this election was ''stolen.''

USA TODAY was unable to contact the TikTok user. USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user, who did not provide evidence to back up the claim.

Blackout is not linked to 'stolen election'

The livestream software lost connection with the office's cameras after staff left for the day and was reconnected the next morning about an hour after staff returned, according to a Nov. 10 statement published on the Washoe County website.

The blackout lasted for more than eight hours because the staff wasn't there to fix it, the statement says.

The security administrator reviewed the building's security camera footage and said no one entered the ballot room or Registrar’s Office, according to the county. Video files of the security camera footage were included in the county's statement.

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"These files are directly from the surveillance server and are encrypted into a proprietary file type, so the files cannot be tampered with," the statement reads.

Bethany Drysdale, a Washoe County spokesperson, reiterated these details in an email to USA TODAY.

"Results for the night of Nov. 9 were posted two hours before the cameras went down," Drysdale said. "We have provided security footage of all access areas to the ballot room, and it shows no one entering or leaving during that time. There is no other way into the ballot room other than to break a window, which did not happen."

Drysdale explained that the livestream cameras are not security cameras, they are webcams installed to "provide a service" to Washoe County residents.

"This is not the first time they have gone down, it just happened to be overnight when our staff was asleep and did not know that they went down until the following morning," Drysdale said. "They were immediately restored, and actual security footage was released."

Drysdale told PolitiFact the office had also checked employee badges to see if any had been used to access the building's ballot room overnight, and none had.

This claim has been debunked by AFP as well.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a blackout of Nevada's ballot-counting livestream ''is one of the ways blue states steal elections.'' The blackout was caused by a connectivity issue, according to a Washoe County statement. Security camera footage and employee access card data shows no interference with the ballots during the blackout.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, Nevada livestream blackout doesn't prove fraud

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