The livestream cameras capturing the vote-counting process in one key Nevada county went dark Wednesday night. County officials said all staff had left for the night when the cameras went out.
According to Washoe County officials, a computer application lost connection Wednesday night, causing the livestream cameras to go dark at 11:24 p.m. Officials said “all staff had left for the night about 60 minutes earlier and did not arrive back at the office until 7 a.m.”
The connection was restored at 7:53 a.m. the following morning.
“They intermittently lose connection with the application. When this has happened before, such as on Election Night when one camera went dark, staff was able to see the disruption and restore it. These cameras are not security or surveillance grade cameras,” the county said in a statement.
Officials claimed the Washoe County security administrator reviewed the building’s security camera footage and confirmed that “no one entered the ballot room or Registrar’s Office during the time that the courtesy livestream was down.”
“In the future we will look for a solution that would prevent software disruptions or simply not offer a courtesy livestream feed,” the county said. “Washoe County has been at the forefront of trying to innovate election transparency, but we have moved from an election night to a much longer election timeframe. The technology we are using to provide this livestream cannot keep up with these demands. We suggest enhancing transparency with security cameras rather than courtesy livestream cameras in future elections.”
After the blackout occurred and the cameras were subsequently restored, Washoe County submitted another batch of ballot results, which leaned Democrat and turned Washoe blue as a county Thursday night, according to 2 News.
