LEXINGTON, Ky. — Rapper Kanye West's tweets about the votes he's getting in Kentucky are not accurate, according to several journalists at LEX18 in Lexington.
Tuesday night, West tweeted a screenshot from the LEX18 website, showing that he had more than 40,000 votes in Kentucky and was in third place behind libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen and independent candidate Brock Pierce.
While West celebrated the numbers online, the journalists at LEX18 were quick to correct him.
"The “results” being shown are NOT correct. They were part of a routine test in advance of the election," political reporter Karolina Buczek said on Twitter.
According to LEX18, the website West found was an old link used during the June primary election to show election results from the Associated Press (AP). While the link was still active on the site, the results it showed were part of a routine test the AP completes before each election.
LEX18 Anchor Nancy Cox also responded to West's tweets, clarifying the numbers that were being posted online and apologizing for the confusion.
"Despite what @kanyewest is tweeting, he is not leading the race for President in KY. The Associated Press always sends out test numbers to make sure systems are working. It's an automated thing that is posting election results on our website. Sorry viewers. Sorry Kanye," she said.
While Kentucky officials are optimistic about a quick turnaround on election night, there may be a delay in results reporting due to the number of absentee ballots submitted this year. Kentucky voters could opt to vote by mail if they had concerns about voting in-person due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kentucky Board of Elections Executive Director Jared Dearing said county clerks can begin processing ballots as they come in, but they aren't allowed to start calculating totals yet.
Early in-person voting began on Tuesday in Kentucky and will continue through Nov. 2.
WHAS11 viewers can find election results when they're available at whas11.com/elections or on the WHAS11 app.
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