Report: Cameras streaming NV ballot count went dark for 8 hours, officials say no security concerns

Cameras that were set up at a Washoe County vote counting facility in Nevada to provide a live stream of the ballot counting after the midterm election went out for 8 hours on Wednesday night.

Washoe County officials have responded to the incident, in which several cameras in the facility were set up to provide additional transparency to voters went dark for a period of eight hours the night after the midterms.

Officials told the Reno Gazette Journal that there was no reason for the public to be concerned about any kind of foul play during the period the cameras were out. 

The cameras went out at almost midnight on Tuesday, and were not reconnected until almost 8am on Wednesday, according to Washoe County. The cameras are typically checked on by employees at the facility, but the facility’s hours ended that night at 10:30PM, so no one was there to notice the cameras were offline until employees arrived back at the building in the morning.

The officials say the cameras that went out are not security or surveillance cameras, and other cameras meant for security had been pointed at the parking lot, entrance to the room where the ballots were being counted, and other points of entry, and showed no one entering or exiting the facility during the time the live stream was down. 

Asked whether they would change anything to prevent this from happening again moving forward, the officials said they may simply not offer the live stream in the future.