Media Defend Nevada’s Slow Election Vote Count After Condemning Delayed Tally in 2020 Iowa Caucuses

Election workers sort ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 9, 2022. John Moore/Getty Images

Many of the mainstream media outlets that are currently defending the slow counting of votes in Nevada and Arizona following November’s midterm elections, had criticized the very same thing in coverage of the 2020 Democratic Iowa caucuses, according to media watchdog NewsBusters.

NewsBusters, a project of the Media Research Center, works to expose and combat liberal media bias, according to its website.

The watchdog compiled a video montage of reporters from outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and CBS News in which they repeatedly state that the lengthy vote-counting process in Arizona this month is “normal,” “ordinary,” and “part of the process.”

Arizona has taken days to count its votes for the governor and the U.S. Senate races following Tuesday’s elections.

Alongside the first video published by NewsBusters is a second montage in which hosts from those same media outlets condemn the slow vote-counting process in the major 2020 Democratic contest in Iowa, and bemoan still not knowing who had won days after the elections had taken place.

In the first video, MSNBC’s Katy Tur tells viewers, “The truth everyone, as you know, is that it’s going to take time and that is normal,” while MSNBC political analyst Michael Steele states that this is “part of the process” and “normal” while urging viewers not to get upset.

Elsewhere, ABC reporter Terry Moran tells “Good Morning America” viewers: “This is normal. Ordinary Arizonans will continue the ordinary work of counting votes.”

CBS News and CNN anchors and correspondents also repeatedly state that the vote-counting process “takes time” and urge viewers to be patient.

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (L) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) in file photographs. Getty Images

‘Caucus Chaos’

In contrast, reporters from those same stations in 2020 criticized the vote-counting process in Iowa, with MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson telling viewers: “Breaking this morning, the Iowa caucuses. They’re what’s breaking because the system is actually broken.”

Then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo called the delayed results an “epic failure by the Iowa state Democratic Party” while CBS’s Gayle King states, “It seems the jokes are going to start writing themselves.”

Reporters from CNN, MSNBC, and ABC repeatedly refer to what they call “caucus chaos.”

NewsBusters senior research analyst Bill D’Agostino shared the videos on Twitter, writing: “Vote counting for the 2020 Democratic Iowa Caucus was so abysmally bad that even the media dunked on it. Keep in mind, this is the same media who are now wagging their fingers at you like kindergarten teachers, and lecturing you about patience in Arizona and Nevada.”

Officials in Nevada were still accepting mail-in ballots through Saturday evening, as long as they were postmarked on or before the day of the election, in accordance with state law.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) is projected to defeat Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada, according to The Associated Press, Decision Desk HQ, and other outlets, granting the Democrats the 50 seats they need for an effective majority and ending Republican hopes of flipping the Senate.

During a speech in Las Vegas on Sunday, Cortez Masto said her win shows that “Nevadans rejected the far-right politicians working to divide us” and that, “When far-right Republicans said they knew better, I knew we would prove them wrong.”

Laxalt said on Twitter on Saturday that his “victory window” has narrowed but is yet to concede defeat in the race.

The newly-elected Senate will be sworn-in on Jan. 3.