Votes in Shelby County, Tennessee, not flipped by machines

Some Shelby County, Tennessee, voters say touchscreen voting machines swapped their votes to candidates from another party. But the machines did not malfunction.

Early voting began Oct. 16 in the county, and a day later state Democratic lawmakers said at a press conference that some Democratic constituents reported their votes were registering for Republicans.

Social media users took notice, with one calling for a bipartisan end to voting machines.

“Votes being swapped from (Kamala) Harris to (Donald) Trump,” said sticker text on an Oct. 20 Instagram video. “It doesn’t matter what political party you align with. We all need to band together and agree these voting machines need to go!” 

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The county’s election administrator said the problem was that voters’ fingers’ inadvertently touched the wrong box on the touchscreens. Each candidate’s name is in the center of a large box.

(Screenshot from Instagram)

The Instagram video plays a short clip of a news report from Action News 5 (WMC-TV) in Memphis, which said members of the state’s Democratic caucus had received calls from voters about their votes being changed.

The station’s full report gives more context. 

“I do not believe that it is anything nefarious in any way, shape or form,” Shelby County Election Commissioner Vanecia Kimbrow said in the news report. 

The news report said it was unclear whether any Republican voters had experienced similar issues.

We have fact-checked similar false claims about flipped votes in other states, during this election and in 2020.

Kimbrow said at the Oct. 17 news conference that she received constituent reports in about 10 to 12 precincts “of some irregularities with the voting machines.”

Kimbrow said the machines are new and highly sensitive and that voters should use a provided stylus rather than their fingers to ensure they make their preferred selections. She also urged voters to be “very careful and very intentional” about casting their votes and to review their ballots.

Shelby County Election Administrator Linda Phillips explained what happened to two local news stations.

“There were a few voters that felt that the machine was switching their votes. That’s really not what was happening,” Phillips told Fox 13 (WHBQ-TV) in Memphis. She said the issue was the placement of the voters’ fingers on the touchscreen ballot.

Shelby County Election Administrator Linda Phillips in a video shows voters how to select a candidate on touchscreen machines by clicking the candidate’s name in the center of the box, not on the smaller box in the upper left corner. (Screenshot from Shelby County Election Commission X post)

Phillips gave a demonstration to ABC 24 (WATN-TV), also in Memphis. The ballot shown on the screen has a small box on the upper left side within a larger box containing a candidate’s name.

If voters use their fingers to touch the smaller box on the upper left, they could accidentally touch part of the larger box above it that has a different candidate’s name. Republican candidates’ names are listed first on the ballot, ABC 24 said.

“Whichever pressure is heavier, it’ll pick that one, and that might be the one above it,” Phillips said. “The real simple fix for that is either use a stylus, but the easiest way is just touch the candidate’s name.” 

Similar issues have been reported in Tennessee’s Davidson and Williamson counties, according to Nashville’s WKRN-TV.

The Shelby County Election Commission posted a video on X Oct. 17 showing how the machines work. In the video, Phillips urges voters to aim for the center of the larger box.

Phillips told PolitiFact in an Oct. 23 email that the commission has found no evidence of equipment malfunction, and the complaints about votes being swapped were limited.

“The Shelby County Election Commission has received three direct complaints at the polling sites. Of those who complained, each successfully cast their ballot for the candidates of their choice,” Phillips said.

Phillips said the commission shared voting machine demonstrations on social media, on its website and with media outlets. It has also encouraged voters to use the stylus to select candidates and urged voters to bring concerns to poll workers or request a paper ballot.

Our ruling

An Instagram post said voting machines in Shelby County, Tennessee, are swapping votes from Harris to Trump.

Election officials said there were no voting machine malfunctions. Voters had inadvertently touched the wrong area of the ballot when using the touchscreens. 

The county received three complaints about the issue at polling sites; eventually, each person who had the issue cast a ballot for the candidates of their choice.

We rate the claim Pants on Fire!