Did a voting machine in Arkansas cause a vote for Donald Trump to be cast instead for Kamala Harris? No, that's not true: Elections authorities at the state and local level plus the voting machine manufacturer told Lead Stories the voter accidentally touched the wrong name because they used their finger rather than the stylus provided. Even so, they said a voter has an opportunity to confirm their selection before casting their ballot. They noted there is no evidence provided that any votes were actually flipped.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) on October 31, 2024. The on-screen text said:
Well, it's not just a conspiracy. It happened to me, too. What do you think?
The video's caption read:
CAUTION TRUMP VOTERS!
I took my daughter with me to vote. She wanted to touch each selection. I was shocked & had to look back at the video to make sure she didn't select the wrong one. Even when I tried, it didn't allow the change at first. Looks suspicious already, folks.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Nov 1 16:28:58 2024 UTC)
The video shows a voting machine touchscreen in Faulkner County, Arkansas (archived here), as a mother and daughter record their attempt to vote early for Donald Trump. It starts with the child trying to press the small white box next to Trump's name while her mother's hand hovers nearby. The touchscreen indicates they chose Kamala Harris, not Trump. The video ends after they successfully switch their vote to Trump.
Lead Stories contacted the chairman of the Faulkner County Election Commission (archived here), a spokesperson for the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office (archived here) and a spokesperson for Election Systems and Software (archived here), the manufacturer of the voting machine, about the claim. All three blamed voter error for the vote mix-up, not the machines themselves.
"It's 100 percent human error, if you will," Faulkner County Board of Elections Chairman Rob Denning (archived here) told Lead Stories in a phone interview on November 1, 2024. "We've had a couple of situations like that. None we discovered have been because of machine issues."
Denning said Faulkner County had investigated the video on TikTok.
"The person voting appears to touch the screen with their knuckle or thumb, which makes an initial selection for Harris," he explained in an email on November 1, 2024. "The video later shows the voter was able to touch the screen and select Trump. The voting machine (Ballot Marking Device) did not malfunction."
Like most jurisdictions in Arkansas, Faulkner County uses a touchscreen voting system manufactured by Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software (archived here). The company said mistakes come when the voter touches the wrong place on the screen.
"Touch screen voting machines do not flip votes," said spokesperson Katina Granger (archived here) in an email to Lead Stories on November 1, 2024. "In this case, you can see the voter is attempting to touch the tiny check box. They can touch anywhere inside the large box containing the candidate's name."
She added that "voting machines are designed to accurately capture a voter's choices, and allow them to see and verify those choices on screen and on a paper ballot before casting that paper for tabulation. There is no scenario in which a voter would be forced to cast a ballot that they believe did not reflect their intentions."
Elections Systems and Software posted a video (archived here) on November 1, 2024, to show voters they should touch the name of their candidate on the screen, not the small white box in the corner.
Arkansas does not require voters to use a stylus to make their onscreen selection, but some counties like Faulkner County offer the pencil-like tools at each voting location.
Arkansas Secretary of State spokesman Chris Powell told Lead Stories in an email on November 1, 2024, that using a stylus would "help them more accurately make their selections on the touch screen."
Hel added, "[I]t's not clear from the video whether or not the voter accidentally touched the wrong box with part of their hand. As you probably know from having a smartphone, touchscreens can be sensitive. However, this issue can also happen as a result of a screen calibration issue and we have seen isolated incidents of this in multiple elections before and have no reason to believe any votes have been 'flipped' as a result."
Denning said even if someone made the wrong selection, there are safeguards in place to make sure they can correct it.
"The great thing about our voting system is the voter is able to make changes on the screen, review those changes on the review screen before printing, and review their printed paper ballot and confirm they have made their intended choices before casting their ballot," he said.
And if someone does have a problem, Denning urged, "please do tell someone at the polling site rather than on social media."
Lead Stories recently fact checked a claim about a similar voting machine issue in Kentucky.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to the 2024 U.S. general election and other elections are here.
