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The vote-flipping machine video is from Indiana in 2018

A viral post says machines in four states flip Democratic votes to Republican. Some voters saw it happen. Officials blame touch errors. Check the paper.

View from the GalleryUpdated Nov 4, 202621 sources
An X account with about 6,600 followers · on XThe post we're checking
Watch. This is being reported in multiple states. [A 15-second video of a touchscreen voting machine. The voter touches the box for Tobi Beck, Democratic, and the mark lands on Jim Baird, Republican, the name above.
Screenshot of the post on X, with the reader note X later added. We blurred the account's name and photo. Video still from The Independent. Shown for commentary.
Read the post as text
Watch. This is being reported in multiple states. [A 15-second video of a touchscreen voting machine. The voter touches the box for Tobi Beck, Democratic, and the mark lands on Jim Baird, Republican, the name above.]
Posted Oct 22, 20261.2M views on X. The account's text post the day before, with the four-state claim, has 636K.See the original

The bottom line

The video is from Indiana's 2018 midterms, on machines Tippecanoe County has since retired. This fall, voters in Tennessee, Texas and Florida did report Democratic picks jumping to Republicans on screen. Officials blame mis-touches and screen calibration. We found no reports from Ohio. The machines print a paper ballot voters can check before it's counted.

The claims

What the post says or clearly implies, checked one by one. How verdicts work

1

The video shows a voting machine switching a vote in this year's election.

Wrong

The clip is from Indiana in 2018. It shows Republican Jim Baird and Democrat Tobi Beck, who ran for the U.S. House that year, on machines Tippecanoe County has since replaced.

The Independent published the footage on Nov. 6, 2018, from "inside an Indiana polling booth"1. The voter pressed Beck, and the screen selected Baird. The man who filmed it said he wasn't assuming fraud, but asked, "how likely is it there are other errors we can't even see?" The clip in the viral post still carries The Independent's logo. PolitiFact dated it to 2018, citing a Journal & Courier report on a West Lafayette poll2.

That fall, eight Tippecanoe County voters reported Democratic picks showing up as Republican. Two election board members tried and couldn't reproduce it3. The county's machines had no paper backup and had "malfunctioned several times in recent elections"4. The county replaced them in 20215.

2

Machines in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Ohio change Democratic votes back to Republican unless the voter persists.

Misleading

Voters in Tennessee, Texas and Florida did see Democratic picks jump to Republicans on screen. Officials blame mis-touches and screen calibration, and the printed ballot lets voters catch it. We found no reports from Ohio.

The four-state wording also ran on a Facebook post by the liberal group The Other 98%6,2. Dozens of Tennessee voters said the screen showed a different candidate. One kept pressing Democrat Jerri Green and "it kept punching back to Marsha Blackburn." Tennessee elections coordinator Mark Goins called it "an unintended touch"7. The state logged one complaint among about 400,000 voters2. A Palm Beach County, Florida, voter said her Democratic picks jumped to Republicans. Officials couldn't recreate it8.

Two Bexar County, Texas, voters said Democratic picks switched to Republicans, and a third said picks dropped9. A Texas officials' group says "nearly every case comes back to the screen calibration on older touchscreen machines"2. The county is checking with the manufacturer10.

These voters get a paper ballot to review, and the paper is what counts7,2. Florida defaults to pen-marked ballots11, though Palm Beach offered touchscreens to every early voter12,8. As of 2020, most Ohio counties used paper ballots, and 13 used touchscreens that print a paper record13.

The real disagreement

Facts can't settle this part, so we don't rule on it.

Should most Americans vote on touchscreen ballot-marking machines, or mark paper ballots by hand?

Both sides want a paper ballot that can be recounted and audited. The National Academies say ballots "may be marked by hand or by machine"14, and federal law requires at least one accessible voting system at every polling place15. The fight is over who should use the machines: everyone, or mainly voters who need them.

Hand-marked paper for most voters

A ballot the voter marked by hand is the best record of what they chose.

Paper protects an election only if it records what the voter chose, and a machine-printed ballot depends on the software that printed it. Computer scientists Andrew Appel, Richard DeMillo and Philip Stark conclude that "no audit can assure that the votes on paper are the ones expressed by the voter on a touchscreen"16.

The backstop is voters checking their printouts, and few do. When University of Michigan researchers modified machines in a mock polling place, "only 40% of participants reviewed their printed ballots at all, and only 6.6% told a poll worker"17. Tennessee's election chief says a voter can mis-touch without noticing7. Hand-marked ballots are still scanned and audited, and Verified Voting backs machines "for voters who need to use them"18.

Touchscreen machines for everyone

One system for all voters keeps every vote private and every ballot readable.

Federal law promises voters with disabilities "the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters"15. If only they use the machine, their ballots can stand out. The National Disability Rights Network says "a private and independent vote is the law of the land"19. The Michigan researchers note the machines "allow voters of all abilities to vote in the same manner"17.

Machines also end guessing over stray marks. Georgia's audit of about 5.3 million 2024 ballots found 87 discrepancies. Eighty-six were on hand-marked ballots, where reviewers had to interpret what the voter meant20. And voters can learn to check. In a Rice University study, voters given a list of their choices "can be near-perfect detectors of ballot changes"21.

Where they agree

  • Both sides want every vote on paper that can be recounted and audited14.
  • Both sides keep accessible machines for voters who need them18,15.

What would change minds

  • Data from real elections on how often voters check their printed ballots, and how often they catch an error.
  • Audits comparing machine-printed ballots with what voters meant, not just with the machine's own barcode.

Sources

Every source was opened and read. Advocacy groups are labeled as such.

Show all 21 sources
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    Wahlmaschinen-Video von 2018: Fehler sichtbar, Wahlbetrug unbelegt
    Mimikama2026-10-23JournalismAustrian fact-checking site, in German. Cites a May 2022 Purdue University report on the county's 2021 purchase.
  6. 6
    Post on X naming four states
    X2026-10-21Primary document
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
    Florida Statutes § 101.56075, Voting methods
    Florida LegislaturePrimary document
  12. 12
  13. 13
    White paper on Ohio voting equipment
    Clermont County (Ohio) Board of ElectionsPrimary documentUndated. Describes equipment in use across Ohio's 88 counties.
  14. 14
    Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy, chapter 4
    National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine2018Research
  15. 15
    52 U.S. Code § 21081, Voting systems standards
    Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law SchoolPrimary document
  16. 16
    Ballot-Marking Devices (BMDs) Cannot Assure the Will of the Voters
    Andrew Appel, Richard DeMillo and Philip Stark2020-02-14Research
  17. 17
    Can Voters Detect Malicious Manipulation of Ballot Marking Devices?
    University of Michigan (Bernhard, Halderman et al.), IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy2020Research241 participants in a mock polling place, not a real election.
  18. 18
    Statement about Risk of Reliance on Ballot-Marking Devices
    Verified Voting2020-09-28Advocacy / think tankNonpartisan group that advocates for auditable, paper-based voting.
  19. 19
    Statement on Balancing Security and Accessibility in Voting
    National Disability Rights Network (copy in Montana Legislature committee records)2017-12Advocacy / think tankDisability-rights advocacy group.
  20. 20
    Ballot Image Audit Report, November 2024 General Election
    Georgia Secretary of State (copy hosted by Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy)2024-11-25Primary document
  21. 21
    Can Voters Detect Errors on Their Printed Ballots? Absolutely
    Rice University (Kortum, Byrne et al.), arXiv2022-04-20Research64 participants, told to check their ballots against an assigned list of choices.

Corrections

  • Nov 4, 2026: We originally said we found no reports from Florida of Democratic picks jumping to Republicans on screen. Palm Beach County voters reported it during early voting, before we published, and the supervisor responded on the record. We added those reports, and fixed a sentence saying Florida voters use touchscreens only on request: Palm Beach offered them to every early voter. Our "misleading" verdict is unchanged.

Think we got something wrong? Email editor@viewfromthegallery.com with a source. Corrections are made openly and logged on the page.