NBC Data Error Briefly Shows Talarico at 91.9%
A data-entry error in Associated Press feed caused an incorrect vote share to appear on NBC News election coverage before being corrected.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Elections
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During NBC News election-night coverage on November 3, 2026, a 91.9 percent vote share for James Talarico briefly appeared on screen before being revised to 59.8 percent about three minutes later. The Associated Press said a data-entry error also briefly showed an incorrect vote total for Ken Paxton in Tarrant County.
Why it matters
The incident shows how errors in shared election data feeds can briefly distort published results and fuel false claims online. Online posts seized on the displayed figures to allege election fraud in the Texas Senate race, though the error was corrected within minutes.
NBC News displayed Talarico at 91.9 percent before revising to 59.8 percent about three minutes later, while the Associated Press reported Paxton's Tarrant County total as 22,403 instead of the correct 202,403. The AP has not detailed how the erroneous entry entered its feed.
The players
Associated Press
The Associated Press is a global news cooperative that supplies election results data to many news organizations, including NBC News.
NBC News
NBC News is a major American broadcast network that displayed the incorrect figures on its election-night coverage.
Steve Kornacki
Steve Kornacki is an NBC News political correspondent known for his election-night analysis who flagged the figures as unusual.
The details
The incorrect figures appeared on NBC News's Kornacki Cam on November 3, 2026, and Steve Kornacki flagged them as unusual when they appeared. NBC News sources its election data from the Associated Press, which collects results from precincts and election offices through local reporters. NBC News did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
Timeline
November 3, 2026: The erroneous figures appeared during election-night coverage and were corrected within about three minutes.
November 5, 2026: A forum post falsely claimed the figures exposed election fraud.
November 6, 2026: The Associated Press explained the data-entry error to AFP by email.
Season Trajectory
The incident occurs within the Associated Press's established practice of relying on local reporters to collect precinct and election office results for distribution to subscribers. It shows how a data-entry mistake at the collection stage can reach national broadcast screens before correction.
Readers following Texas election results should treat early or unusual vote shares as provisional until official county canvasses are released. Verifying figures against the Associated Press or official county sites can help avoid spreading incorrect totals.
The takeaway
Election data flows through many hands before reaching viewers, so a brief error can look like evidence of fraud. Checking corrections and official county totals before sharing results helps prevent false conclusions from spreading.
Further reading
For more on how the state's races are tracked, see Texas Elections.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Fact Check.
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