Dominion, election officials refute claims that Georgia machines flip votes | Fact check
The claim: Voting machines in Georgia are changing people’s votes
An Oct. 22 Instagram post by comedian D.L. Hughley (direct link, archive link) shares a warning from actor T.C. Carson for voters to double check how their ballots are marked.
“So I just got through voting. Yeah, had a little issue,” Carson said. “Did my ballot and printed out my ballot. And they had changed who I was voting for, for president. And it came out with 45’s name on it,” he said, apparently referring to former President Donald Trump being the 45th president.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene made a similar claim about a supposedly opposite flip, saying on X that a constituent had contacted her office about votes being flipped from Trump to Vice President Kamala Harris.
"This is exactly the kind of fraud we saw in 2020 and it cannot be tolerated," the Georgia Republican said on X, echoing the baseless claim that the 2020 election results were affected by election fraud.
Both claims generated tens of thousands of interactions on social media.
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Georgia officials say mismarked ballots are due to user error
While nobody else was in the booth with Carson or others who have claimed the machines switched their votes, Dominion Voting Systems – the maker of the machines – and the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office have been adamant that vote-flipping can't not happen.
"The false claim that voting machines can switch votes has been repeatedly debunked,” Stephanie Walstrom, a spokesperson for Dominion, told USA TODAY. The company maintains a page addressing misinformation about its machines.
Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, addressed the Whitfield County, Georgia, claim that Greene posted about in an Oct. 23 briefing:
“It has been an individual who said, ‘This isn’t who I meant to vote for.' And they go to the poll manager, and they say okay, come back we will spoil this ballot and you can vote again. And they’re able to do it. There is zero evidence of a machine flipping an individual’s vote. Are there elderly people whose hands shake, and they probably hit the wrong button slightly and they didn’t review their ballot properly before they printed it? That’s the main situation we have seen. There is literally zero – and I’m saying this to certain congresspeople in the state – ZERO evidence of machines flipping votes. And that claim was a lie in 2020 and it’s a lie now.”
The Whitfield County Board of Elections and Registrars posted an explanation of the incident, including the fact that the voter’s ballot was replaced after they mentioned it did not reflect their choice. Greene also appeared to step back from the claim in an Oct. 21 post on X, saying she appreciated “public transparency and dedicated hard work to election integrity” of the Whitfield election board and also shared the release.
Dominion has fought multiple legal battles to clear its name from an array of lawsuits claiming its machines malfunctioned or otherwise manipulated the 2020 election results. USA TODAY has also debunked multiple claims that the voting machines flipped votes, deleted votes and can create fraudulent ballots after being hacked.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also addressed such claims, saying on Face the Nation on Oct. 20 that all voting equipment is working properly. He encouraged voters to review their printed ballots before turning them in and asking for the ballots to be spoiled and replaced if they don’t reflect whom they wanted to choose.
USA TODAY reached out to Greene, Carson, Hughley and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office for additional comments, but did not immediately receive responses.
AFP and PolitiFact also addressed the broader claim that votes are being switched in Georgia.
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Our fact-check sources:
Stephanie Walstrom, Oct. 23, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Whitfield County (Georgia) Board of Elections and Registrars, Oct. 19, Press release
WANF-TV, Oct. 23, Georgia Election Officials address claims of machines flipping votes
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oct. 21, Post on X
Face the Nation, Oct. 20, Transcript: Brad Raffensperger on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,"
Dominion Voting Systems, accessed Oct. 23, Setting the record straight: Facts about Dominion
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No proof voting machines are changing ballots in Georgia | Fact check