NEW YORK (AP) — The reports erupt on social media every election year: Voters say they tapped a candidate's name on a touchscreen voting machine, only for the wrong person to light up as their selection.
With some trial and error, and occasionally help from poll workers, the voters are generally able to cast their intended ballots. Nevertheless, some come away from the experience assuming the worst — that the anecdotal issues are proof of a partisan election-rigging scheme.
As early voting in November's midterm elections gets underway in most states, with soaring turnout in many of them, the claims have returned in force, with voters — especially Democratic ones — in Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas documenting difficulties with the ballot marking devices.
Many voters have described their experiences on social media, with some falsely interpreting the troubles as attempts at election tampering to favor Republicans. The claims come as an AP-NORC poll shows many Democrats have lost trust in election results over the last four years, with many seeing the president interfering with the vote as a major concern.
Election officials say the touchscreen challenges are almost always the result of user error or an easily fixed screen miscalibration, and say the number of complaints this year isn't higher than it has been in years past, despite the outsized attention on social media. They emphasize that voters can select a candidate as many times as needed, consult a poll worker for help and review selections before submitting their ballot.
Elections in the U.S. are decentralized, with thousands of election jurisdictions controlling the vote, each with different rules set by state and sometimes local governments. That structure makes the nation’s voting process extraordinarily complicated. It also shields it from widespread fraud.
“Almost all of the claims of vote flipping are understandable human error,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who noted disinformation purveyors often seize on well-meaning concerns to sow doubt in the voting process. “Is there one of us who hasn't had a butt dial or mistyped something on our phones? It is not nefarious.”
The complaints about touchscreen machines switching votes have gathered tens of thousands of likes, shares and views on social media in recent days, popping up in various high-population areas across the country, including Tennessee's Williamson and Davidson counties, homes to Franklin and Nashville.
Stella Parton, the sister of the late country singer Dolly Parton, wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday that at her polling place near Nashville she had to “go back three times and correct my vote" because it kept defaulting to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
She added: “I’m putting this out here because when we vote, we take it seriously but we try not to hold up the long lines. Do it anyway. Don’t let them rig this election.”
Chad Gray, election administrator in Williamson County, said officials there had found no discrepancies in the voting equipment. If problems or questions do arise, he said, people from each party will examine the devices and make sure they are working properly.
Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins told WSMV in Nashville that the issues reported in his area were “not a vote-flipping situation.” “It’s more like an unintended touch that they may not even realize,” Goins said.
Another Facebook user explained in a video that when his mother-in-law attempted to vote for Democratic candidates in Kendall County, Texas, the machine kept selecting Republicans. He said she was ultimately able to vote as desired and contended that it could have been user error, but still concluded people were “jacking with our elections.”
Staci Decker, elections administrator in Kendall County, said “100% of the time” the issue can be attributed to a voter tapping the wrong part of the box onscreen or from voters tapping the screen too hard, causing it to become miscalibrated. She said her policy is for staff to recalibrate the screens every few days to ensure the accuracy of the touchscreen.
“This is part of an attempt at every election (especially the bigger ones) to scare voters away,” Decker said in an email. “Every single piece of equipment used in our election is tested before it can be used in an election.”
In South Carolina, where an X user said a machine made it hard for her to vote for Democratic Senate nominee Annie Andrews, state election officials haven’t seen any unusual increase in reports of voters having trouble making selections, said Sydni Bain, a spokesperson with the state’s election commission.
“We commonly receive some of these reports during elections, particularly statewide elections with high turnout,” she said. “We encourage all voters to be careful in making their selections and to review their ballot before it is cast.”
In Bexar County, Texas, where an X user reported having to tap the screen forcefully to get the machine to register her choice of Democrat James Talarico instead of Republican Ken Paxton for Senate, election officials said they couldn’t confirm any equipment issues.
“This could possibly be user error,” said John Moreno, the county’s assistant public information officer. “If a voter has concerns about their ballot, they should bring it to the attention of the on-site judge.”
Kristin Miles, president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials and election administrator in Bastrop County, said “vote-switching” claims come up every election cycle.
"Nearly every case comes back to the screen calibration on older touchscreen machines, not a change to anyone's vote,” she said.
Officials emphasized that machines are tested before each election and that in most jurisdictions, there is a postelection audit that consists of a manual hand count of a sample of paper ballots.
Voters across the country cast ballots in various ways, including with ballot marking devices that print a paper record or with paper ballots they fill out by hand.
The counties where most of the recent vote-flipping social media reports are concentrated use ExpressVote ballot marking devices from a company called Election Systems & Software. The machines let voters make their selections on a touchscreen. Then, a paper record is typically printed for review before the votes are tabulated.
Katina Granger, senior manager of public relations for the Nebraska-based ES&S, said the company works closely with election officials and provides technical support when needed but has not been made aware of any widespread issue with voting machines this cycle.
She said when a voter is having difficulty, they should ask a poll worker for assistance. If they've already printed a ballot that doesn't reflect their intended selections, “they should notify a poll worker rather than cast it so the jurisdiction can follow its procedures for replacing the ballot.”
Associated Press writers Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, and video journalist Kristin M. Hall in Nashville contributed to this report.
FILE - Poll workers set up ballot-marking machines at an early in-person voting site at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Oct. 16, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
Voter turnout is soaring compared with the last midterm election in many of the states that are expected to decide control of the U.S. Senate, according to an Associated Press analysis of early voting two weeks before Election Day.
Advocates for greater voter identification requirements are pursuing a new approach in some states: a mandate to place driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers on mail-in ballots. Variations of the voter ID proposals are being decided in the midterm elections in California, Colorado and Nevada — three states where conservative activists collected petition signatures to bypass Democratic-led legislatures and place the issue directly before voters.
Trump must sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11, a federal judge said, after the broadcaster’s lawyers accused him of delaying his testimony. The judge warned that, unless the discovery period is extended, Trump could face sanctions including dismissal of his lawsuit if he fails to answer questions from the BBC’s lawyers under oath.
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Republican Ashley Hinson launched her remarks to hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, by describing her phone calls with the president. “I’m not sure, frankly, that he’s always happy when we’re talking because I ask him for a lot of things for Iowa when we’re on the phone,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you would expect me to do, right, as your next United States senator.” Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House, faces Democrat Josh Turek in Iowa’s competitive and costly race for Senate. While Hinson said she’d be Trump’s top ally when she kicked off her campaign a year ago, she’s increasingly taken positions that break with the White House. It’s a balancing act many Republicans have had to do as high gas and grocery prices and an unpopular war in Iran frustrate voters. Trump will speak to Iowans in the state’s most conservative district to try to boost turnout.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced a new inquiry into how Space X’s Starlink and Starshield technologies were slowed down for Ukraine’s defense systems, exposing the country to incoming Russian missile attacks they could not quickly deter.
Blumenthal’s letter to Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth come after reporting from the Wall Street Journal about the slowdown.
“Whether that change was directed by the White House, DoD, or SpaceX, the episode raises urgent questions,” he wrote.
Separately, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis implored those involved to “raise your hand” if they were responsible. “Otherwise, let’s get this resolved,” he said on X.
The vice president’s midterm rally is schedule for 4 p.m. Monday at the steel fabricating firm Haas Metal Engineering’s plant in north Topeka, with Vance scheduled to speak at 5:15 p.m., the Republican National Committee said.
Vance’s visit comes a week after President Donald Trump held a rally in Wichita to boost Marshall’s chances of winning a tossup race against Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton that’s become the most expensive contest in state history. Vance also headlined a Sept. 14 rally in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe.
Republican groups have so far committed to spending $26 million on television and digital advertising through the election, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. That’s offsetting Marshall’s lackluster fundraising and bringing the GOP’s total to $32 million. However, Hamilton and Democratic groups have committed to spending $38 million, bringing the total ad spending for both sides to $71 million.
The tight contest is even more notable because no Democrat has won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932. That 94-year streak of one-party dominance is the nation’s longest.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reiterating that troops cannot use “nonpublic information” to make bets on prediction markets.
“Our enemies watch movements in these markets,” Hegseth wrote in a memo dated Tuesday and reviewed by The Associated Press. “When an American Service member, intelligence professional, or other Department civilian engages in a financial transaction on a military outcome, they create a signal.”
The document stressed that troops are forbidden from using both classified and nonpublic unclassified information to make trades on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.
It says violators could be subject to both administrative punishment as well as criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or federal law.
In April, U.S. Special Forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket.
The memo was reported earlier by CBS News.
The president, during a gaggle with reporters before departing for a campaign rally, confirmed that the military version of the Starlink satellite service offered by SpaceX is once again working at optimal speeds for Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that SpaceX founder Elon Musk agreed to lift restrictions on Starlink for Ukraine. Trump demurred when asked if he requested Musk to lift the cap.
“You know whether I called or whether somebody else called doesn’t make any difference,” Trump said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”
The speed restriction disrupted front-line operations and left Ukraine more exposed to Russia’s jet-powered Shahed drones, which fly at more than 400 kph (250 mph).
The State Department is renewing three fellowship programs designed to diversify the ranks of the U.S. foreign service that had been partially or fully suspended last year amid deep cuts to the diplomatic corps.
The department and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced Thursday that the Pickering, Rangel and Payne fellowships for graduate students wanting to pursue careers in the foreign service would return with higher stipends and living expense payments than had been previously offered.
The suspension of the programs -- named for six-time ambassador Thomas Pickering and the late former congressmen Charles Rangel and Donald Payne – had been criticized by many in Congress.
The fellowships will resume at a lower level of enrollment and it was not immediately clear from the department’s statements if the criteria for acceptance had substantially changed from those in the past.
Todd Blanche was referring to a lawsuit the administration filed to force Los Angeles County to set aside ballots from 20,000 people across California that the Trump administration says may not be citizens. California officials say that’s impossible at this late date and that their quick checks have shown many appear to indeed be citizens.
Blanche said there may be similar cases in other states. “Whether we’re going to do something before the election, I don’t want to get ahead of the civil lawyers working on those cases,” he added after an appearance in Virginia.
Reporters asked the Attorney General whether the Department of Justice would challenge certification of the election. Blanche said that, while he couldn’t say such a thing could never happen, “it is not DOJ’s intention to and it’s never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, filed the lawsuit. They claim Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, is refusing to restore voting eligibility to 25 people who investigators have determined are U.S. citizens.
Heap initially suspected them of being noncitizens and revoked their eligibility.
The complaint says that unless those affected have their voter registration status restored immediately, they risk being denied the right to vote in this year’s midterm elections.
In a statement issued Thursday, Heap said his office has been “trying to restore these voters for weeks” but has been denied the proper documentation to do so by Mayes and the county attorney.
The Trump administration and some Republican officials have prioritized finding noncitizens on state voter rolls this year, but many people initially flagged in those investigations have turned out to be U.S. citizens
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, should keep running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic opponent Amy Acton, posting on social media that it was “hitting pay dirt.”
Trump also denounced Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who criticized the ad as “deeply, deeply troubling” earlier in the day. Acton previously served in DeWine’s administration as a health official. Her mother lost custody of Acton and her brother after her husband — the children’s stepfather — was indicted for raping Acton.
“He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad,’” Trump wrote. “He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing. I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a rally with Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson on Thursday in which hundreds of attendees cheered her calls to expand healthcare and get the U.S. out of Iran.
Ocasio-Cortez is stumping for progressive candidates in the run-up to the midterm elections. Jackson is running against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He and Ocasio-Cortez dedicated a lot of the event to calls for changing America’s priorities from foreign conflicts to domestic cost of living issues.
Ocasio-Cortez said the nation’s spending priorities are leaving working people behind by focusing on war.
“How are we going to afford Iran, how are we are going afford Gaza, when our people back home can’t eat, can’t afford healthcare, can’t afford to build a bridge to get to work,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Jackson also took a jab at Collins for appearing with retired Sen. Joe Manchin, a former Democrat who became an independent, in Lewiston on Wednesday.
The Trump administration has hit 61 current and former Bolivian and Colombian officials, judges and lawmakers and their families with travel bans for alleged corruption and narcotrafficking.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday he had taken the step to further efforts by the U.S., Colombia and Bolivia to crack down on drug trafficking throughout the Western Hemisphere. The sanctions will revoke any current visas those targeted may hold and deny any future applications.
They apply to 40 Bolivians, including two sitting members of parliament, a former attorney general and a number of judicial and police officials, and 21 Colombians, including a current mayor and several former lawmakers.
Rubio said the sanctions target foreign nationals “who, through corruption or narcotrafficking activities, undermine democratically elected governments in our hemisphere -- regardless of their political affiliation.”
The South Carolina Republican senator says that’s what it will take to express her thoughts to the president about his waiver of the bill named for her late brother, Lindsey Graham.
Trump campaigned in the state for Darline Graham on Wednesday, as she seeks a full term replacing her brother.
She rode back to Washington with the president afterward “because I was asked to” but told reporters Thursday in Columbia that she didn’t bring up the waiver because “there were other people on the plane,” adding, “That’s a private conversation.”
Graham helped ensure Senate passage of the sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, which Trump signed into law but paused last week. On Saturday, she said she intended to discuss Trump’s decision, with which she disagreed.
Calley Means, a top Make America Healthy Again adviser to the Trump administration, has resigned from his role just days ahead of the midterm elections.
Means said he “leaves with tremendous respect” for Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He did not elaborate on the reasons for his departure.
“The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick,” he said. “This movement is in the first inning and just getting started.”
Means was hired as a White House adviser early in the second Trump administration. He used that perch to attack the nation’s leading physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists, claiming they only protect their own interests in the nation’s $4.9 trillion-a-year industry.
Vice President JD Vance stopped his speech and led the audience in prayer after a person in the risers behind him appeared to collapse on Thursday.
As emergency workers responded during a rally in North Platte, Neb., Vance asked those “who are of the praying type” to join him in prayer. Vance, a Catholic, crossed himself and recited the Lord’s Prayer as some in the crowd folded their hands and joined him. Vance also asked his staff to send a doctor.
“Always in moments like this, I try to pray as the Lord taught us to pray,” Vance said.
After the prayer, Vance walked into the risers and knelt down as the person was being helped. He later returned to the podium to finish his remarks.
President Donald Trump on Thursday accused LeBron James of disrespecting the United States after the NBA star appeared to continue his warm-ups while the national anthem was performed before Philadelphia’s season opener on Tuesday.
“I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE,” Trump said of James in a social media post sharing the video. “LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our Country stands for!”
James appeared to practice a golf swing and jump shot as The Star-Spangled Banner was performed at Tuesday’s game in New York. James, starting his first season with Philadelphia, was lined up alongside teammates who mostly stood still during the anthem.
Trump and James have been critical of each other for years, occasionally trading public swipes.
The order came as the BBC’s lawyers complained that Trump had delayed his appearance. Attorney Charles Tobin said that, with two months left in the discovery period, “We still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”
He noted there was an agreed-upon date of Oct. 16, but Trump canceled it for a “matter of national importance.” Tobin said Trump was in fact campaigning in Georgia.
“He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett said Trump must sit for a deposition by Dec. 11, or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit — unless the discovery period was extended past Dec. 18.
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The Trump administration has faced numerous questions about interruptions to the Elon Musk-made satellite internet system that Ukraine has relied on to counter Russian attacks.
In Cincinnati on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance was asked about Musk’s involvement in the slowdown of Starlink and Starshield in Ukraine and whether it warranted an investigation.
“I think that fundamentally, Elon Musk runs a private corporation,” Vance told reporters. “And I think it’s completely understandable that he doesn’t want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do.”
Vance continued: “So I don’t think this is about Elon. I think it’s fundamentally what is America’s policy in Ukraine and Russia going to be.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, have said this week that the U.S. didn’t order or direct any throttling of network access in Ukraine.
Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in Maine on Thursday to campaign for Democrat Troy Jackson, whose Senate bid is critical for the party to take control of the chamber.
Jackson is running against five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. She campaigned with retired former Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin in the state on Wednesday.
Ocasio-Cortez’s event with Jackson is at a theater in Portland on Thursday and is billed as a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall.
Ocasio-Cortez has also campaigned for Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for Senate in Michigan, another state that's key to Democrats’ efforts to flip the Senate.
Ohio’s governor has denounced a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Dr. Amy Acton, taking sides with the Democratic candidate for governor and former member of his Cabinet over her Republican rival, Vivek Ramaswamy.
At a gaggle with reporters at the Statehouse in Columbus, DeWine called the ad “deeply, deeply troubling.”
“It’s wrong to run this ad,” he said. “I would urge Ramaswamy’s campaign to take this down.”
DeWine’s remarks place him at odds with Ramaswamy, whom he has endorsed. The biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate has taken responsibility for the 60-second video, which has drawn bipartisan rebukes, and is spending $4 million to broadcast it online and on TV.
The vice president laid out concerns about horserace polling and urged Republicans to tune them out because it could dampen enthusiasm among Trump voters.
“Obviously, you never know what the final outcome is going to be,” Vance told reporters on Thursday in Cincinnati, adding: “it’s important for everybody to remember that sometimes these polls actually have this, this demotivating effect on our voters.”
He cited some polls in the 2020 and 2024 presidential races that turned out to be highly inaccurate.
“But I talk to people, and I do think they have the effect of demotivating our voters, which is why I encourage people: ignore the polls, run like we’re down, and try to make the best case that we can,” Vance said. “Eventually, of course, the American people make the decision.”
Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged on Thursday in connection with what federal authorities alleged was a role leading a criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.
An indictment unsealed on Thursday charged Lucas and six other defendants, including several of her relatives, the Department of Justice said in a statement ahead of a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m.
Lucas surrendered on Thursday, a Justice Department spokesperson said.
The charges came after the FBI searched Lucas’ hometown office and a cannabis shop in which she has a stake in May. At the time of the search, the 82-year-old Lucas — who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration — characterized it as an attempt to intimidate her.
“This is the circus we always expected it to be, and we will wait for further details to have a more specific response,” said Brian Woolfolk, chief counsel for the L. Louise Lucas Legal Defense Fund.
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Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two, at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, in Hebron, Ky., Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, en route to a campaign rally in Nebraska. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the T. Ed Garrison Arena, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Pendleton, S.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Washington, as Vice President JD Vance listens. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Pitt–Greenville Airport, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Ramey)
