Tennessee Officials Deny Vote Flipping After Stella Parton Claims
Stella Parton and other voters alleged machines defaulted ballots to Marsha Blackburn, but Tennessee officials attributed the issues to touchscreen calibration and unintended touches.
Singer Stella Parton alleged that a voting machine at the Hermitage Library in Davidson County, Tennessee, repeatedly defaulted her gubernatorial vote to Republican nominee Marsha Blackburn. In social media posts, Parton claimed she had to correct her selection three times and warned other voters not to let the election be rigged.
Similar reports emerged from Williamson County, where voters claimed selections for Democrat Jerri Green flipped to Blackburn. In response, Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins and the Secretary of State's office denied that vote flipping is occurring. Goins attributed the reports to calibration issues with older touchscreens or unintended touches that voters may not realize they are making.
State officials emphasized that the generated paper record, rather than the screen, serves as the official count. The Secretary of State's Office noted it had received only one formal complaint of this nature out of approximately 400,000 ballots cast. To address precision issues, Davidson County Elections Administrator John Richardson announced the return of stir sticks to be used as styluses for the pressure-sensitive touchscreens.
