Claim:

A video posted to social media authentically shows a Kentucky voting machine failing to allow a voter to select former Republican United States President Donald Trump.

Rating:

What is true

The video in question shows a Kentucky voter trying to select former US President Donald Trump and the machine does not allow it. The machine ultimately selects Vice President Kamala Harris instead. According to a Laurel County employee, it was a malfunction.

What is wrong

The device shown in the video is not a vote tabulation machine, but rather a ballot marking machine that allows voters to make their selections on a screen before the machine prints a ballot physics reflecting these selections, which is then fed into the compilation machine. The Laurel County Clerk said the device in question was taken out of service until it was inspected. They also said voters have multiple opportunities to ensure their selections are correct before turning in their ballot. The voter in the video was able to vote with their correct selections.

A video published on TikTok which allegedly showed a Kentucky voting machine failing to allow a voter to select the Republican presidential ticket of former US President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance went viral on social media at the end of October 2024.

In the video, a voter attempts to select Trump, but the machine initially does not respond. Ultimately, he recorded a box-office pick for the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

The video was widely shared on job receiving over 2 million views and 24,000 shares as of this writing. This user added: “Why does this always seem to happen one way and not the other?”

Another person sharing the video on said“Reason #80 million to go paperless and permanently ban voting machines.” Another widely shared jobwith nearly 20 million views and 45,000 replays as of this writing, claimed: “Kentucky voting machines REFUSE to let voters select Donald Trump’s name, automatically selecting Kamala Harris instead. »

Even if the video in question was authentic and the machine did indeed malfunction, it was not a voting machine that directly counted votes. Rather, it was a ballot-marking device that asked the voter to make their choices on the screen and then printed a physical ballot for use in counting. For this reason, we have classified this statement as blend true and false.

Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown said in a statement released on Facebook:

The Attorney General’s Office visited the voting center to check the device which was featured today on social media. In full disclosure, after several minutes of trying to recreate the scenario, this happened. This was accomplished by hitting an area between the squares. After that, we tried for several minutes to start again and couldn’t.

The initial statement continued like this:

This is the same machine used by the voter in the video. It remained in its location in the voting center and was placed face down until the representative of the Attorney General’s Office arrived to investigate. There have been no complaints about problems with the device previously, and none since it was returned to service. The voter who posted the video actually voted and, according to her, was correct.

Brown also published a video explaining how the ballot marking device works. Essentially, a voter inserts their paper ballot into the machine, makes their selections on the screen, which then prints the appropriate selections on the physical ballot that the voter will then turn in for counting.

The clerk explained:

It shows you who you’ve chosen for each race and alerts you if you haven’t made a selection in a race before allowing the voter to move on to the next page. When you get to the end of the poll, it shows you how you voted for each race and each issue. It confirms to each voter that they are satisfied with their choices twice before printing the ballot. Once you receive your ballot from the ballot marking device, you can review your choices before placing it in the scanner. If you made a mistake, you can cancel this ballot and receive another one. Kentucky law only allows two spoiled ballots. Once you are happy with your ballot, you can place it in the scanner, which verifies that it has been counted.

Additionally, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman job on:

The Kentucky Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) quickly responded to Laurel County’s complaint. Detectives contacted the county clerk and recommended they change the voting machine. All Kentucky voters can be confident that our elections are secure and that any potential problems will be resolved quickly.

Coleman also released a statement via the official Kentucky website and said, “Every Kentuckian can have confidence in the security and integrity of our elections. Our dedicated team of investigators, prosecutors and support staff work tirelessly to protect every vote. We encourage anyone who suspects election law violations to contact the Attorney General’s Election Office. Fraud Helpline.”

Additionally, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams republished a news article about the dysfunction and said: “There is no such thing as ‘vote switching.’ The voter confirmed that her ballot was correctly printed as marked for the candidate of her choice. Get your voting information from legitimate sources, not TikTok or chats.”

The secretary of state was referring to a popular conservative X account that has 3 million followers. The account reposted another account sharing the claim and said“It’s funny how it always goes one way, isn’t it?”

Snopes has contacted the Laurel County Clerk to determine if there have been any other reports of ballot marking machines malfunctioning and will update this article as soon as we receive a response. Similar reports from Kentucky surfaced in 2023.

Snopes has covered a wide variety of voter fraud allegations related to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, including the delay in vote totals. do not indicate that there is electoral fraudwhether it is a large number of non-citizens vote in US elections and if you use a Sharpie marker invalidates ballots.