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FACT BRIEF

Did Bergen County, New Jersey report 100% of its votes were counted in the 2021 election, yet add unexplained votes later?

By Christiana Dillard
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NO

Social media posts cast suspicion on changes in numbers overnight after Election Day, questioning some 40,000 votes in Bergen County added for incumbent Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.

Added votes were explained by how votes were counted after polls closed. Raw numbers that night did not include mail-in and provisional votes, which were counted after on-site results.

Although news organizations showed "100%" in the "Rpt." or "reported" column on the night of November 2, that referred to 100% of precincts reporting results.

Election numbers from The Associated Press were the source of results for many news outlets. Lauren Easton, global director of media relations and corporate communications for AP, told Lead Stories:

"Bergen County had advised before Election Day that it had received more than 42,000 mail ballots. When the county reported most of those votes early Wednesday morning, AP added them to its tally."

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
New York Times New Jersey Election Results
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.