Data Error in Arizona Reveals 86 Percent of the Vote Counted, Not 98 Percent

A data error in Arizona’s vote count percentage made it appear a higher percentage of the vote had been counted Wednesday morning.

The error was found in Edison Research data, and identified by New York Times editor Patrick LaForge.

An error was found in the data feed from Edison Research (used by @nytimes and other news organizations) for Arizona results — 86 percent of ballots have been counted, not 98 percent. NYT has not called the state for Biden, though he still leads. https://t.co/mPDkiKsExQ

— Patrick LaForge (@palafo) November 4, 2020

Initially, figures showed that 98 percent of the vote had been tallied, but as of 12:09 p.m., 86 percent of the vote was counted.

News organizations quickly corrected the error.

In Arizona’s vote count, Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden won 51 percent of the vote while President Donald Trump won 47.6 percent of the vote, according to the Arizona Secretary of State website.

More than 2.7 million votes have been counted. Biden is in the lead by just under 100,000 votes.

Both the Associated Press and Fox News named Biden the winner in Arizona. Trump won the state of Arizona by four points in 2016.