Voter integrity group flags Georgia news site for setting live 'bizarre' mock primary results

An election integrity group has flagged a Georgia broadcasting company for accidentally posting test election results ahead of next week's primaries but also suggests at least one of the results showed "media bias."

"The results test page clearly should have never been made public," said nonprofit, nonpartisan VoterGa. "News media organizations have accidentally released premature results before. VoterGA wanted to find out where the bizarre results originate since they tend to show media bias in reporting."

The results were apparently removed from the WSB-TV election reporting site upon the company discovering, then deactivating the live link.

VoterGA, however, was able to preserve most of the results that originally appeared at the site's link.

WSB News Director Suzanne Nadell told VoterGA that the company had received test election results from the Associated Press – a common procedure for news organizations, as is creating results pages and links ahead of election day. 

WSB-TV did not respond to Just the News' request for comment Tuesday.

Voter GA acknowledged most of the results track with polls, including those for the GOP gubernatorial primary, with incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp with 44% of the vote, compared to 40% for challenger and former Sen. David Perdue.

Still, the group said one of the "bizarre" results was from the state's 6th Congressional District, where Democrat candidate Byron Gatewood is shown winning 43% of the vote, despite a low-profile campaign and  minimal name recognition.

Mallory Staples, who has consistently polled close to 10 times higher than Gatewood, according to VoterGA, says that the AP's "pubic distortion" of legitimate polling has "damaged" the efforts of her campaign, and also "caused confusion among voters."