Fox elections chief: ‘Nothing to’ delays in vote count on Election Day

Arnon Mishkin, the head of Fox News’s Decision Desk, dismissed speculation that a delay in the counting of votes in key battleground states during this week’s midterm elections is sign of nefarious activity.

“It absolutely leads to questions,” Mishkin said during an appearance on Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum’s podcast “The Untold Story” on Tuesday when asked about delayed results in several key contests. “And people can exploit those differences for whatever reason. There’s nothing to it other than that these election officials are counting based on the rules in place.”

In states like Pennsylvania, Mishkin noted, election officials are not allowed to look at the absentee vote until after until 2 p.m. on Election Day.

“Some of that comes from … I would argue, a good place, which is you don’t want people opening the vote before Election Day and finding out, oh, we’re behind or so-and-so is behind so that they can go stop them, you know, get other people to the polls,” he continued.

“And some of it is just that, you know, this is how America has chosen to vote. And the election officials in the state rules should adapt to fix that and make sure that that it can be done in a timely manner, because timely results, as you point out, are really important.”

Mishkin in 2020 found himself at the center of a controversy that engulfed the network on election night when Fox’s Decision Desk made the decision to call Arizona for President Biden, a move that infuriated former President Trump, who falsely asserted on election night he had won.

Mishkin took heavy criticism from Trump and his supporters after the election, with the then-president’s campaign attacking him as a “[Hillary] Clinton-voting, Biden-donating Democrat.”

Mishkin has donated to members of both the Democratic and Republican parties and in August was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. 

Fox News confirmed last year it would bring Mishkin back as part of its coverage team for the 2022 midterms and 2024 elections.

UPDATED: 4:09 p.m.