Democratic Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear, with his wife Britainy Beshear, receives a ballot from a poll worker in Louisville on October 31.Timothy D. Easley/The Associated Press
This article is part of The Globe’s initiative to cover dis- and misinformation. Email us to share tips or feedback at disinfodesk@globeandmail.com.
Officials, including from the Republican National Committee, have confirmed that a ballot-marking machine in Kentucky did not change someone’s vote for president from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris.
A false claim that this vote-switch did happen began circulating on social media last week. It originated with a video posted to X on Thursday. We are not directly linking to the video so it is not amplified. In the video a voter appears to have trouble selecting Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, on a touchscreen ballot-marking device. In the video, the voter attempts to tap a small box near Mr. Trump’s name several times. As further attempts are made, the screen shows Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s name selected.
Annotated screenshot of a video posted to X with the misleading suggestion the voter was not able to vote for their selected candidate due to the ballot-marking machine.X
Tony Brown, the county clerk for Laurel County, Ky., where the incident happened, said in a statement posted to Facebook that same day that the voter who posted the video was able to cast a correct ballot. Mr. Brown said the machine was taken out of service and that there had been no complaints about it before the incident.
State elections board points to user error
The Kentucky State board of Elections observed inconsistencies in how the touchscreen was used in the video.
The video shows one hand attempting to jab the small box in the field available for Donald Trump and unsuccessfully registering a selection. A second hand then attempts to select the larger Trump field, not with the same jab at the small box, but with a pressing of the pad of the finger in the area slightly below the small box. At this point, the touchscreen highlights the large Harris field, after which, the second hand then attempts to simultaneously click the large Trump field with an index finger and the large Robert F. Kennedy field with a thumb, leaving the Harris box highlighted.
— Kentucky State board of Elections
James Young, the former elections director for Jefferson County, Ky., also addressed the way the voter had used the touchscreen in a post on X.
“If you look closely, the voter is attempting to press the small check box located within the text box. Consistently, the voter gently presses their finger on the thin border, which at times can cause an adjacent text box to highlight instead of their intended choice. Had the voter pressed the center of the text box, this would not have occurred,” he said.
Mr. Brown said in a follow-up statement that “in full disclosure, after several minutes of attempting to recreate the scenario, it did occur. This was accomplished by hitting some area in between the boxes. After that we tried for several minutes to do it again and could not.”
The statement includes a video of the same device from the incident being used with the correct candidate names highlighted when the whole box for a candidate had been tapped.
What officials said about “vote switching”
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams posted on X that “there is no ‘vote-switching.’ The voter confirmed that her ballot was correctly printed as marked for the candidate of her choice.”
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said in a post on X: “We called election officials directly. They separated the machine, conducted proper testing, didn’t find any errors, and confirmed that voters could cast their ballots properly.” We are not directly linking to Ms. Trump’s post so the video included in the reply is not amplified.
The Kentucky State Board of Elections appeared to cast doubt on the motive behind sharing the video.
“Once the voter left the polling location, she uploaded the media she had captured to her social media accounts, tagging other accounts belonging to influencers known to push claims of election fraud, stating that her video needed to get ‘out there.’”
— Kentucky Board of Elections
What is Kentucky’s voting process?
Voters in Kentucky are required to show a valid form of approved photo ID in order to cast a ballot, or sign an affirmation and use an alternate form of ID. According to independent organization Verified Voting, most Kentucky counties use hand-marked paper ballots with a small percentage mandating ballot-marking machines.
Mr. Brown summarized Kentucky’s voting process when using a machine in his Facebook post.
Kentucky voters receive a blank ballot for their precinct that can be inserted into a vote-marking machine. The machine confirms with the voter what selection they made in each race on the ballot, or if none was selected, before continuing the voting process. After making selections for the whole ballot, the machine shows a summary and asks for confirmation twice before printing it. The marked ballot is put into a scanner for tabulation.
If there is a problem with the marked ballot, the voter can reject it and request a new one. This is considered a spoiled ballot, one that has been mistakenly marked or altered. A spoiled ballot is not counted. In Kentucky, a voter can spoil and request a new ballot twice, Mr. Brown said.