No, a video of a Kentucky voting machine malfunction isn’t proof of election interference

A viral video making the rounds on social media shows an apparent issue with a voting machine in Kentucky. 

In the video, a voter appears unable to select Donald Trump as their pick in the 2024 presidential race on a voting machine’s touchscreen. The person keeps tapping on the screen near Trump’s name before it selects Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. 

VERIFY reader Kris texted us to ask if these claims are true.

THE QUESTION

Is the viral video showing a Kentucky voting machine malfunctioning evidence of election interference?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, the viral video showing a Kentucky voting machine malfunctioning isn’t evidence of election interference. 

WHAT WE FOUND

A voter in Laurel County, Kentucky, did report on Thursday, Oct. 31, that one of the touchscreen ballot marking devices was malfunctioning, County Clerk Tony Brown confirmed. But the issue with this ballot marking device isn’t proof of election interference in the state.

The voter was able to cast their ballot for the candidate of their choice, election officials confirmed. There’s no evidence of “vote switching” happening in Kentucky. 

The issue with the ballot marking device was an isolated incident in Laurel County. Kentucky’s State Board of Elections said in a statement that more than 1,700 voters in the county cast their ballots properly on Oct. 31, and there were no other reports of issues with the touchscreen ballot marking devices or any ballot scanners on that day. 

In response to the viral video, Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump confirmed in a post on X shared on Friday, Nov. 1, that election officials separated the machine seen in the video and did not find any errors after conducting tests. 

The voter in the video also “confirmed that her ballot was correctly printed as marked for the candidate of her choice,” Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said on X. 

“There is no ‘vote switching,’” Adams said. Lara Trump added that election officials “confirmed that voters could cast their ballots properly.”

So what happened with the ballot marking device in Laurel County? 

In his initial post on Oct. 31, Brown said election officials checked the device and “couldn’t make it recreate the incident reported.” They took the machine out of service while they waited for a representative from the attorney general’s office to arrive, he said. 

Brown said in a follow-up post on the same day that election officials were eventually able to replicate the issue once after several minutes, but they couldn’t do it again. 

They replicated the issue “by hitting some area in between the boxes,” Brown said in the post, which includes a video of staff clicking between various candidates without issues. 

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the state's Department of Criminal Investigations investigated the complaint and recommended the machine be switched out. He reaffirmed that Kentucky's elections are secure and said “any potential issues will be addressed quickly.”

The issue with the ballot marking device in Laurel County likely had to do with where the voter was tapping on the touchscreen. 

These devices “are set for a voter to touch inside the whole box with the name of the candidates,” Brown said. 

In the viral video, the voter presses their finger on the thin border on the left-hand side between boxes, “which at times can cause an adjacent text box to highlight instead of their intended choice,” James Young, former Elections Director for Jefferson County, Kentucky, said on X.

“Had the voter pressed the center of the text box, this would not have occurred,” Young added. 

The State Board of Elections also said it encourages voters using the touchscreen ballot marking devices to “use their finger or a stylus to firmly make their chosen selections within the middle of the field allocated for that candidate or response.” 

According to Brown, the voter who posted the video was able to cast her ballot, “which she said was correct.” There were no claims about any issues with the ballot marking machine prior to the voter’s report and no issues since it went back into service, he said. 

The ballot marking devices don’t immediately submit your vote, either. There are extra steps voters take before printing the ballot and placing it into a scanner for counting.

According to Brown, voters insert a blank ballot into the machine and select candidates for various races. 

“It shows you who you have chosen for each race and notifies you if you didn't make a selection," Brown explained in the Facebook post. "When you come to the end of the ballot it shows you how you voted in every race and issue. It confirms with each voter that they are satisfied with their selections twice before printing the ballot."

If a voter makes a mistake on the printed ballot, they are allowed to "spoil" it and receive another one. Under Kentucky law, voters can only have two spoiled ballots, Brown said. 

A voter who is satisfied with their ballot can place it into the scanner, which verifies that it has been counted. 

Joseph Garcia with VERIFY partner station WHAS11 contributed to this report.