Tennessee voting machine flipping claims
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The gist
Tennessee voters and Dolly Parton's sister Stella Parton say early-voting machines changed their picks.
Officials call it user error; the state says it got one such complaint out of about 400,000 ballots.
Background
Tennessee opened early voting on Oct. 14 for its Nov. 3 general election, covering governor, U.S. Congress, the Tennessee General Assembly and three proposed constitutional amendments. Days later, community groups in Madison County and voters in Williamson County reported that touchscreen machines displayed a different candidate than the one they chose. The claims drew wider notice when Stella Parton, a singer and Dolly Parton's sister, posted that her ballot at a Nashville library kept defaulting to Marsha Blackburn and she had to correct it three times. County and state officials say the machines are tested and are not flipping votes.
How it unfolded
- Oct 14, 2026Hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans begin casting early ballots for governor, U.S. Congress, the state General Assembly and three proposed constitutional amendments.
- Oct 17, 2026The Jackson-Madison County NAACP, the Jackson-Madison Voter Council and other groups hold a press conference in Jackson saying they received numerous complaints that Madison County machines were changing voters' selections.
- Oct 20, 2026WSMV reports some Williamson County early voters said machines displayed a different candidate than intended, taking at least three tries to correct. Secretary of State Tre Hargett visits West Tennessee early-voting sites.
- Oct 21, 2026Stella Parton posts that at the Hermitage Library in Nashville she had to correct her vote three times because it kept defaulting to Marsha Blackburn. More than 6,000 Madison County residents had voted early as of Tuesday.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Madison County Administrator of Elections Lori Lott denies machines are flipping votes, calling it "user error" and saying machines are tested with Republicans and Democrats; the Secretary of State's Office says it received one such complaint out of about 400,000 ballots and urges voters to check the review screen and paper record.
- Support
- The Jackson-Madison County NAACP's Harrell Carter says the right to vote is "one of the most sacred rights we have as Americans" and that the complaints will not be tolerated.
- Public
- Voters including Stella Parton, Jackie Herrud and Toni Fitzgerald say machines switched their selections or defaulted to another candidate, with Parton writing "Don't let them rig this election."
Still unverified
Social media users alleged a "disturbing trend" in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Ohio of machines changing Democratic votes back to Republican unless the voter persists; voters' accounts of machines switching selections are their own reports, which the Secretary of State's Office disputes, saying it received one complaint of this nature out of about 400,000 ballots cast.