Given the questionable way in which the 2020 election and its aftermath played out, many Americans have doubts about the claimed integrity of the nation's ostensibly free and fair elections.

That skepticism was deepened last Sunday, more than a week before Election Day, when a local station in Pennsylvania aired the supposed results of the 2024 election in that state and showed Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris handily defeating Republican former President Donald Trump, according to The Washington Times.

The leaked purported blowout win for Harris in the Keystone State was rendered all the more dubious when it is compared to all of the various polls and early voting data that suggest either an exceptionally close race or a slight to moderate Trump victory.

Leaked "test results" suggest huge Pennsylvania win for Harris

Last Sunday, while airing the Formula 1 race from Mexico, local ABC affiliate WNEP-TV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre also briefly broadcast a banner on the bottom of the screen that seemed to show that VP Harris had defeated former President Trump in the state, 52-47%, with 3.29 million votes for Harris compared to 2.99 million votes for Trump, per the Times.

There was immediate outrage on social media and WNEP-TV quickly responded with a statement that said that "test results" for the general election had "mistakenly appeared" on TV screens and insisted, "Those numbers should not have appeared on the screen, and it was an error by WNEP that they did."

"The numbers seen on the screen were randomly generated test results sent out to help news organizations make sure their equipment is working properly in advance of election night," the station explained. "The numbers were not reflective of any actual vote count."

The local affiliate further asserted that no votes would be counted or results revealed until after the polls closed on Election Day, and added, "WNEP regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion. We have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again."

However, the Times noted that many skeptical social media users thought the mistakenly aired election results banner was evidence of cheating and a rigged election, with one user aptly summarizing, "If the same graphics pop up after November 5th, with the same percentages & the same vote count, it’ll be EXTREMELY suspicious. And the media wonders why nobody trusts them?"

Polls show Trump with a slight lead over Harris

One reason people found WNEP-TV's election results banner, which showed VP Harris with a huge victory over former President Trump, so dubious is because it contradicted much of what has been seen in the polls and early voting data so far in the 2024 cycle.

First, all of the polls of Pennsylvania voters show an incredibly close race in the Keystone State, with RealClearPolling's average placing Trump ahead of Harris by just 0.3 points in that critical battleground state.

More broadly, RCP's national average currently has Trump up over Harris by just 0.1 points, but also shows him prevailing in five of the seven crucial swing states -- including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania -- while Harris has slim leads in only two, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Early voting data also doesn't show a huge win for Harris

Then there is the early voting data that, according to The Independent, also suggests a tight race with a likely advantage for Trump over Harris, given a stronger-than-usual turnout from Republican voters contrasted with lagging turnout numbers for Democrats compared with prior election cycles.

To be sure, mixed conclusions can be drawn from the data, as some indicators in certain states point to a Trump victory while in other states there are encouraging signs for the Harris campaign.

In the end, the main point is that everything from the polls to early voting data strongly suggests that the 2024 election will be close and end with a slight victory for Trump, but almost certainly not a massive blowout win for Harris as one might be led to believe from the local Pennsylvania station's mistakenly leaked "test results."