Can electronic voting machines change your vote? Here’s what experts say

By Jeremy Herb, CNN

(CNN) — The videos that pop up on social media appear alarming: A voter seemingly touches one candidate’s name, only to see the machine highlight an opposing candidate instead.

With early voting underway, there have been a scattering of reports across the country already about voting machines “flipping votes” to the wrong candidate. From Tennessee to Texas to Florida, videos and social media posts have raised concerns that the machines are attempting to invalidate their vote.

In some cases, such videos have gone viral but are actually years old.

Election officials and experts say it’s an issue that arises nearly every election cycle. But there’s no evidence of anything nefarious behind the problem, they say. Instead, it’s typically a result of a voter’s stray touch or a long fingernail causing the machine to register the wrong selection. In some cases, there are problems with the voting machine’s calibration that have to be adjusted.

Older technology

It’s also a frequent issue, election experts say, because many voting machines in this country contain technology that predates the invention of the iPhone nearly two decades ago — meaning the machine’s touchscreen is more susceptible to calibration issues and won’t function as well as the one on your phone or in your car.

“It’s one of those things though that people have a visceral reaction to it. And it’s good that people are paying attention and that voters are noticing,” said Tammy Patrick, chief program officer for the National Association of Election Officials.

“The good news is that in all of these cases, everyone has a paper ballot that they can check and make sure,” added Patrick.

Stephen Richer, the former top election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, said that over the past two decades states have added requirements for post-election, hand-count audits, as well as rigorous testing of machines before and after elections, to ensure that everything is functioning properly.

Election officials stressed the importance of voters checking their selections before submitting their ballots. They said there are several steps to make sure that voters cast their ballots correctly — federal law requires voters have the chance to review their selections, and nearly every jurisdiction provides voters a paper copy to review before their vote is submitted.

Jerry Holland, the director of elections in Duval County, Florida, told CNN he has fielded five or six calls out of 30,000 people who have used his county’s voting machines over the past several days.

“The machine is not flipping,” Holland said. “If you’re hitting one [name], your nail, or part of your finger could easily touch the selection above.”

In Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, voters can choose between filling out a paper ballot or using a voting machine that generates a paper ballot to be tabulated. Holland said that every voting machine has a stylus that can be used to more precisely touch the screen.

“We have full confidence that what voters are voting are the selections they truly want,” Holland added.

In Texas, another state where vote-flipping concerns have been raised, the issues are often tied to screen calibration problems of older machines, said Kristin Miles, President of the Texas Association of County Election Officials and an elections administrator in Bastrop County.

“Every election cycle, we hear a handful of reports of so-called ‘vote-switching’ on voting machines in Texas,” Miles said in a statement. “Statewide and local officials have both repeatedly affirmed that nearly every case comes back to the screen calibration on older touchscreen machines, not a change to anyone’s vote.”

County election officials “proactively re-calibrate screens and rigorously test every machine before and after each election,” she said.

Stella Parton’s vote

Stella Parton, the sister of the late Dolly Parton, posted on Facebook this week about her issues using a voting machine in Nashville, Tennessee, where the machine was incorrectly selecting GOP gubernatorial candidate Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

Parton told CNN she had to get help from a poll worker on her third try to make her selection for governor before it finally registered correctly.

“When I saw other people having the same issue, it upset me. I thought you know what, go ahead and post about your own experience, because people need to know about this before they get there on voting day,” Parton said.

In response to claims from Parton and other voters in the state, Mark Goins, Tennessee’s coordinator of elections, told Nashville’s WSMV that the issue was almost assuredly an “unintended touch.”

“In all the situations, since I’ve been here, that’s exactly what’s occurred. It’s been a scenario where, like an unintended consequence, they may not even know it,” Goins said, adding that Davidson County’s machines give voters a printed ballot, which is one of several checks to ensure voters’ selections are correct.

Like the stylus pens used in Florida, Goins said that Davidson County has handed out coffee stirrers to help voters make more precise selections on the voting machines.

Election Systems & Software, the country’s largest election equipment manufacturer, said that voting machines are tested thoroughly before every election to ensure accuracy.

“There is no scenario in which a voter would be forced to cast a ballot that they believe did not reflect their intentions,” said ES&S spokesperson Katina Granger. “ES&S systems are designed with multiple safeguards to ensure voter intent is accurately captured, including voter review of selections, a voter-verifiable paper record, and post-election audits that compare results to the paper ballots.”

Patrick said that while the machines are rigorously tested before elections, calibration issues can still arise, especially with the older technology that can get jostled while being delivered to polling places. When the issue repeatedly arises in a voting machine at a polling place, she said poll workers typically will take that machine out of service so it can be addressed.

“It’s not something that has anything to do with the program of the election and the candidates. It’s the way the screen itself is calibrated,” Patrick said.

The issue is a good reminder that county election offices are frequently underfunded by county and state governments and as a result can’t update old voting equipment, Patrick argued.

“That’s why we need to make sure we sufficiently fund our elections,” she said, “and not just think about it every four years as something that we should invest in.”

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