Officials say Kentucky voting glitch an 'isolated incident' | Fact check

The claim: Post implies glitchy voting machine in Kentucky is proof of election interference

An Oct. 31 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) describes a supposed incident at a Kentucky voting location.

“Voting machines in Kentucky are literally changing the vote from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris,” reads the text in the post, which is a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This is ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”

The user linked to the original X post, which includes a video of a person tapping a screen numerous times in an attempt to select the box displaying former President Donald Trump’s name. After several seconds, the box with Vice President Kamala Harris’ name lights up.

Users appeared to interpret the incident as a sign of nefarious activity.

“Election fraud,” reads one of the comments.

Another said the incident was “absolutely fraud,” and a third asserted “the steal is on.”

The Facebook post was shared almost 150 times in five days, and the X post it linked to was reposted more than 20,000 times. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Instagram and X.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implication here is wrong. Officials investigated the incident and were able to recreate what’s shown in the video by hitting an area in between the boxes with the candidates’ names. The voter in the ballot confirmed her ballot was ultimately marked correctly, the secretary of state said.

No other reports of issues with the machine

Unverified claims of election fraud have surfaced online ahead of the 2024 presidential election. But the notion that the video in the social media posts is proof of it is wrong.

The video was taken at a voting location in Laurel County, Kentucky, as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"It was an isolated incident," Michon Lindstrom, a spokesperson for the Kentucky secretary of state, told USA TODAY. "We have not heard of any additional complaints related to that ballot-marking device or any other issues in the state."

Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown said the state’s attorney general’s office went to the voting center to inspect the machine in an Oct. 31 Facebook post.

“In full disclosure, after several minutes of attempting to recreate the scenario, it did occur,” Brown wrote. “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.”

Fact check: Election officials debunk claim that marked ballots are invalid

The post included a video that Brown said showed officials confirming that the machine, which he specified was a ballot-marking device, was functioning normally with no issues.

“There were no claims of any issues with the device prior, and none since it went back into service,” Brown said.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said there was “no ‘vote-switching’” in an Oct. 31 X post.

“The voter confirmed that her ballot was correctly printed as marked for the candidate of her choice,” Adams said.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said the Republican party investigated the incident and that election officials ”confirmed that voters could cast their ballots properly” in a Nov. 1 X post.

USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims related to supposed election interference, including false assertions that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state would not use Dominion voting machines and that a misspelling of Trump’s name on a Virginia ballot was proof of election fraud.  Georgia officials also told USA TODAY that reports of a machine changing votes there appeared to be a result of user error.

USA TODAY reached out to the clerk's office and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

Our fact-check sources:

• Michon Lindstrom, Nov. 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY

• Lead Stories, Oct. 31, Fact Check: Kentucky Voting Machine Did NOT Switch Trump Votes to Harris

• Lexington Herald-Leader, Oct. 31, Laurel Co. Pulls ballot-marking machine after viral video claims Trump vote went to Harris

• Michael Adams, Oct. 31, X post

• Tony Brown, Oct. 31, Facebook post

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Viral Kentucky voting glitch not proof of interference | Fact check