News/Commentary

Nevada Co confirms livestream of vote-counts went dark for 8hrs, vows to find ‘future’ solution

November 15, 2022 | | Print Article

Washoe County officials in Nevada admitted over the weekend that live streaming video of vote-count areas went dark for 8 hours on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, raising serious concerns about election integrity.

“We know that our election livestream cameras went dark overnight. We investigated what happened and how to prevent it happening again,” Washoe County’s Twitter account stated on Thursday afternoon.

The tweet went viral, setting social media on fire with thousands of reactions, many of which questioned election integrity in Nevada.

“The livestream computer application lost connection with the courtesy cameras at 11:24 p.m. the evening of November 9,” the county said in a statement on its website. “All staff had left for the night about 60 minutes earlier and did not arrive back at the office until 7 a.m. Connection was restored at 7:53 a.m. the morning of November 10.”

“The courtesy cameras are connected to a computer application designed for livestream events,” the county site revealed. “They intermittently lose connection with the application. When this has happened before, such as on Election Night when one camera went dark, staff was able to see the disruption and restore it.”

The security footage for the area was reviewed according to the county and they unsurprisingly found nothing amiss.

“According to the Washoe County security administrator, that footage shows the parking garage, the hallway between the garage, and the entry doors to the Registrar’s Office. He has affirmed that no one entered the ballot room or Registrar’s Office during the time that the courtesy livestream was down,” election authorities asserted, according to the Daily Wire.

Coincidentally, the U.S. Senate race in Nevada between Republican Adam Laxalt and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto was handed to the Democrats on Saturday. The development shocked many Nevadans as Laxalt had led in the race pretty much until the very end when it miraculously went to his opponent. The loss hands control of the Senate to the Democrats.

When county election authorities were asked what they would do to solve the recurring issue, the answer was less than acceptable to many voters.

“In the future, we will look for a solution that would prevent software disruptions or simply not offer a courtesy livestream feed,” county officials stated, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

“Washoe County has been at the forefront of trying to innovate election transparency, but we have moved from an election night to a much longer election timeframe. The technology we are using to provide this livestream cannot keep up with these demands. We suggest enhancing transparency with security cameras rather than courtesy livestream cameras in future elections,” the county added.

Nevadans weren’t the only ones stunned over the loss. The GOP had solidly thought Laxalt had the race in the bag.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) proclaimed during a National Republican Senatorial Committee phone call on Friday, “There is no mathematical way Laxalt loses. If he does, then it’s a lie.”

Questions on election integrity are nothing new to Nevada. Many residents call it a “good ole boy” state for a reason. For decades, elections have reportedly been rampant with discrepancies and ballot dumping has been known to take place in the Silver State. Vote-by-mail has enflamed the issue resulting in vote counting that goes on for days or weeks after an election takes place.

In October, Politico summed it up by declaring, “Election Day is dead. Long live election month.” That certainly seems to be the case in Nevada now.

More people responded, finding the outage highly suspicious:

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