POLICY WIRE FACT CHECK: Viral Video of ‘Switching’ Voting Machine Exposed as 2018 Miscaptioned Footage
The Claim In late October, a video began circulating rapidly across social media platforms, including Facebook, Threads, TikTok, and X, purportedly showing a touch screen voting machine in the...
The Claim
In late October, a video began circulating rapidly across social media platforms, including Facebook, Threads, TikTok, and X, purportedly showing a touch screen voting machine in the current election cycle automatically changing a voter’s selection from a Democratic candidate to a Republican challenger. The footage depicts a user attempting to select Tobi Beck, only for the machine to register an ‘X’ for Jim Baird.
The video was shared with alarmist captions claiming that voting machines across the United States—specifically citing states like Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—were being used to deliberately rig elections. These posts framed the footage as definitive proof of widespread, coordinated electoral fraud, triggering significant public concern regarding the integrity of the democratic process.
The Details & Investigation
Our investigation confirms that while the video itself is authentic—meaning it is not a product of AI-generated imagery or digital manipulation—it is being presented with a false, deceptive context. The footage was recorded during the 2018 midterm elections at a polling location in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. By recirculating this six-year-old clip as if it were a contemporary event, bad actors are engaging in a clear campaign of disinformation designed to undermine voter confidence.
Official records from 2018, including reports from the Lafayette Journal & Courier, clarify that the issue was not a result of malicious ‘rigging’ or a coordinated conspiracy. Instead, election officials and both Democratic and Republican party representatives identified the problem as a localized technical issue caused by improper touch screen calibration. Christa Coffey, the county clerk at the time, received only a handful of reports regarding the calibration errors, and voters were advised to utilize the ‘review ballot’ summary feature to ensure their selections were recorded accurately before casting their final vote.
Mike Smith, an elections specialist with the Tippecanoe County Board of Elections & Registration, has explicitly labeled the current circulation of this video as a ‘coordinated attack of misinformation and disinformation.’ He emphasized that the allegations of deliberate vote switching are ‘patently false.’ The attempt to rebrand a known, resolved technical calibration error from 2018 as a current, systemic failure constitutes a deliberate effort to deceive the electorate.
Furthermore, the electoral landscape has evolved significantly since 2018. Indiana has since implemented enhanced security measures, including paper trail requirements that allow voters to independently verify their selections. By ignoring these technological upgrades and the historical context of the 2018 incident, those spreading the video are intentionally misleading the public to create a false narrative of election instability.
The Verdict
The claim that the viral video depicts current voting machines ‘switching’ votes is FALSE. The video is a miscaptioned, out-of-date clip from the 2018 Indiana midterm elections. The original incident was investigated by bipartisan officials and determined to be a minor, localized touch screen calibration error rather than a systemic or malicious attempt to rig an election.
The current circulation of this video is categorized as DISINFORMATION, as it is being used by bad actors to deliberately deceive voters and erode trust in the electoral process by presenting historical, resolved technical issues as ongoing, widespread fraud. We advise voters to rely on official state election resources and to utilize ballot review features provided at polling stations to ensure their votes are cast as intended.
Counter-misinformation & disinformation investigation conducted by PolicyWire Editorial Desk (PW).
