A viral claim spread rapidly across social media after the November 2024 election, alleging that Republican candidate David Flippo lost tens of thousands of votes overnight in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District race. For anyone who cares about the integrity of election data, understanding exactly what happened — and what didn’t — matters.
The claim, amplified by right-wing commentators including posts like this one, stated that Flippo’s vote total dropped by more than 56,000 on election night. That figure was never accurate. Flippo’s actual vote totals never decreased at any point during the counting process.
What Really Happened on Election Night
The confusion traces back to a brief data error from The Associated Press. On election night, the AP momentarily displayed an inflated vote total for Flippo — a figure that was quickly corrected. The AP relies on reporters physically stationed at local election offices to relay vote totals, because American elections are administered at the county and local level, not by state agencies. That human reporting process introduced a temporary inaccuracy.
The AP addressed the incident directly, describing it as a
“vote-entry error”
that
“caused an incorrect vote total to briefly appear in AP’s results for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District race.”
You can read the full AP statement on the vote count error, as well as a detailed explanation of the AP’s vote count process on election night.
Nevada Officials Set the Record Straight
The Nevada Secretary of State’s Office was equally direct, issuing a formal statement making clear that
“under no circumstances are votes removed from a candidate’s totals.”
The office’s full statement on vote decreases is publicly available for review.
The official Congressional District 2 results show that Flippo ultimately lost to Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson by more than 20,000 votes.
This fact check was produced through a partnership between The Nevada Independent and Gigafact, which produces bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Their methodology explains how claims are selected and verified using primary and public data sources. Readers who spot questionable claims online can submit them directly through the Gigafact tipline for Nevada.