2026-10-24T10:30:15.291Z
社交媒体上流传的视频看起来令人不安：选民似乎触碰了某一候选人的名字，结果机器却把另一位对立候选人高亮显示了。
随着提前投票启动，全国范围内已经出现多起投票机“篡改选票”流向错误候选人的报道。从田纳西州到得克萨斯州再到佛罗里达州，各类视频和社交媒体帖子引发了人们对这些机器可能作废选民选票的担忧。
有些此类视频已在网络上广泛传播，但实际上它们早在几年前就已存在。
选举官员和专家表示，这一问题几乎每届选举都会出现。不过他们称，这背后并没有任何恶意操纵的证据。相反，这通常是由于选民误触，或是长指甲导致机器识别了错误的选择。在部分情况下，投票机的校准存在需要调整的问题。
选举专家还表示，这也是一个常见问题，因为美国许多投票机的技术可追溯到近20年前iPhone发明之前——这意味着这类机器的触摸屏更容易出现校准问题，运行效果也不如你的手机或汽车上的屏幕。
“不过人们对此有本能的反应。人们关注这件事，选民们注意到这个问题，这是好事，”全国选举官员协会首席项目官塔米·帕特里克说。
帕特里克补充道：“好消息是，在所有这类情况下，每个人都有可以核查的纸质选票，以此确保结果无误。”
亚利桑那州马里科帕县前首席选举官员斯蒂芬·里奇表示，在过去20年里，各州已增设了选举后手工计票审计的要求，以及选举前后对机器进行严格测试的规定，以确保一切运行正常。
选举官员强调，选民在提交选票前核对自身选择的重要性。他们表示，确保选民正确投票有多个步骤——联邦法律要求选民有机会复核自己的选择，几乎每个司法管辖区都会为选民提供纸质副本，供他们在提交选票前核查。
佛罗里达州杜瓦尔县选举主管杰里·霍兰告诉CNN，过去几天里，该县投票机服务过的3万名选民中，他接到了五六起求助电话。
“机器不会篡改选票，”霍兰说，“如果你点击了某个名字，你的指甲或手指的某个部位很容易就会触碰到上方的选项。”
杜瓦尔县包括杰克逊维尔市，选民可以选择填写纸质选票，或是使用生成纸质选票供统计的投票机。霍兰表示，每台投票机都配备了触控笔，可用于更精准地点击屏幕。
“我们完全有信心，选民投出的就是他们真正想要的选项，”霍兰补充道。
在得克萨斯州，另一处引发选票篡改担忧的地区，问题往往与旧机器的屏幕校准问题有关，得克萨斯县选举官员协会主席、巴斯托普县选举主管克里斯汀·迈尔斯说。
“每届选举周期，我们都会听到几起得克萨斯州投票机‘选票切换’的报道，”迈尔斯在一份声明中表示，“州级和地方官员都反复确认，几乎所有此类情况都可归咎于旧触摸屏机器的屏幕校准问题，而非任何人的选票被篡改。”
她表示，县级选举官员“每届选举前后都会主动重新校准屏幕，并对每台机器进行严格测试”。
传奇歌手多莉·帕顿的妹妹斯特拉·帕顿本周在Facebook上发帖，讲述了她在田纳西州纳什维尔使用投票机的经历：这台机器错误地选择了共和党州长候选人、联邦参议员玛莎·布莱克本。
帕顿告诉CNN，她在前两次尝试后都失败了，第三次需要工作人员帮忙选择州长后，机器才最终正确识别了她的选择。
“当我看到其他人也遇到同样的问题时，我很不舒服。我想，你知道吗，就把自己的经历发出来吧，因为人们需要在选举日前往投票点之前了解这些情况，”帕顿说。
针对帕顿和该州其他选民的说法，田纳西州选举协调员马克·戈因斯告诉纳什维尔的WSMV电视台，这一问题几乎可以肯定是“意外触碰”导致的。
“根据我任职以来接触的所有案例，情况确实如此。这是一种意外情况，他们自己可能都没有意识到，”戈因斯说，他还补充道，戴维森县的机器会为选民打印纸质选票，这是确保选民选择无误的核查措施之一。
与佛罗里达州使用的触控笔类似，戈因斯表示，戴维森县向选民发放了咖啡搅拌棒，以帮助选民在投票机上做出更精准的选择。
美国最大的选举设备制造商“选举系统与软件公司”表示，投票机在每届选举前都会经过严格测试，以确保准确性。
“在任何情况下，选民都不会被迫投出他们认为不符合自己意愿的选票，”该公司发言人卡蒂娜·格兰杰说，“ES&S的系统设计了多重保障措施，以确保准确捕捉选民意愿，包括选民复核选择、选民可核查的纸质记录，以及将结果与纸质选票进行比对的选举后审计。”
帕特里克表示，尽管投票机在选举前会经过严格测试，但校准问题仍可能出现，尤其是老旧技术在运送至投票站的过程中可能会被磕碰。当某一投票站的机器反复出现问题时，她表示，工作人员通常会将该机器暂停使用，以便进行调整。
“这与选举程序或候选人无关。问题出在屏幕本身的校准上，”帕特里克说。
帕特里克认为，这一问题也充分提醒人们：县级选举办公室经常遭到县和州政府的资金不足，因此无法更新老旧的选举设备。
“这就是为什么我们需要确保为选举提供充足的资金，”她说，“而不是每四年才想起要为这件事投资。”
Can electronic voting machines change your vote? Here’s what experts say
2026-10-24T10:30:15.291Z
The videos that pop up on social media appear alarming: A voter seemingly touches one candidate’s name, only to see the machine highlight an opposing candidate instead.
With early voting underway, there have been a scattering of reports across the country already about voting machines “flipping votes” to the wrong candidate. From Tennessee to Texas to Florida, videos and social media posts have raised concerns that the machines are attempting to invalidate their vote.
In some cases, such videos have gone viral but are actually years old.
Election officials and experts say it’s an issue that arises nearly every election cycle. But there’s no evidence of anything nefarious behind the problem, they say. Instead, it’s typically a result of a voter’s stray touch or a long fingernail causing the machine to register the wrong selection. In some cases, there are problems with the voting machine’s calibration that have to be adjusted.
It’s also a frequent issue, election experts say, because many voting machines in this country contain technology that predates the invention of the iPhone nearly two decades ago — meaning the machine’s touchscreen is more susceptible to calibration issues and won’t function as well as the one on your phone or in your car.
“It’s one of those things though that people have a visceral reaction to it. And it’s good that people are paying attention and that voters are noticing,” said Tammy Patrick, chief program officer for the National Association of Election Officials.
“The good news is that in all of these cases, everyone has a paper ballot that they can check and make sure,” added Patrick.
Stephen Richer, the former top election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, said that over the past two decades states have added requirements for post-election, hand-count audits, as well as rigorous testing of machines before and after elections, to ensure that everything is functioning properly.
Election officials stressed the importance of voters checking their selections before submitting their ballots. They said there are several steps to make sure that voters cast their ballots correctly — federal law requires voters have the chance to review their selections, and nearly every jurisdiction provides voters a paper copy to review before their vote is submitted.
Jerry Holland, the director of elections in Duval County, Florida, told CNN he has fielded five or six calls out of 30,000 people who have used his county’s voting machines over the past several days.
“The machine is not flipping,” Holland said. “If you’re hitting one [name], your nail, or part of your finger could easily touch the selection above.”
In Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, voters can choose between filling out a paper ballot or using a voting machine that generates a paper ballot to be tabulated. Holland said that every voting machine has a stylus that can be used to more precisely touch the screen.
“We have full confidence that what voters are voting are the selections they truly want,” Holland added.
In Texas, another state where vote-flipping concerns have been raised, the issues are often tied to screen calibration problems of older machines, said Kristin Miles, President of the Texas Association of County Election Officials and an elections administrator in Bastrop County.
“Every election cycle, we hear a handful of reports of so-called ‘vote-switching’ on voting machines in Texas,” Miles said in a statement. “Statewide and local officials have both repeatedly affirmed that nearly every case comes back to the screen calibration on older touchscreen machines, not a change to anyone’s vote.”
County election officials “proactively re-calibrate screens and rigorously test every machine before and after each election,” she said.
Stella Parton, the sister of the late Dolly Parton, posted on Facebook this week about her issues using a voting machine in Nashville, Tennessee, where the machine was incorrectly selecting GOP gubernatorial candidate Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Parton told CNN she had to get help from a poll worker on her third try to make her selection for governor before it finally registered correctly.
“When I saw other people having the same issue, it upset me. I thought you know what, go ahead and post about your own experience, because people need to know about this before they get there on voting day,” Parton said.
In response to claims from Parton and other voters in the state, Mark Goins, Tennessee’s coordinator of elections, told Nashville’s WSMV that the issue was almost assuredly an “unintended touch.”
“In all the situations, since I’ve been here, that’s exactly what’s occurred. It’s been a scenario where, like an unintended consequence, they may not even know it,” Goins said, adding that Davidson County’s machines give voters a printed ballot, which is one of several checks to ensure voters’ selections are correct.
Like the stylus pens used in Florida, Goins said that Davidson County has handed out coffee stirrers to help voters make more precise selections on the voting machines.
Election Systems & Software, the country’s largest election equipment manufacturer, said that voting machines are tested thoroughly before every election to ensure accuracy.
“There is no scenario in which a voter would be forced to cast a ballot that they believe did not reflect their intentions,” said ES&S spokesperson Katina Granger. “ES&S systems are designed with multiple safeguards to ensure voter intent is accurately captured, including voter review of selections, a voter-verifiable paper record, and post-election audits that compare results to the paper ballots.”
Patrick said that while the machines are rigorously tested before elections, calibration issues can still arise, especially with the older technology that can get jostled while being delivered to polling places. When the issue repeatedly arises in a voting machine at a polling place, she said poll workers typically will take that machine out of service so it can be addressed.
“It’s not something that has anything to do with the program of the election and the candidates. It’s the way the screen itself is calibrated,” Patrick said.
The issue is a good reminder that county election offices are frequently underfunded by county and state governments and as a result can’t update old voting equipment, Patrick argued.
“That’s why we need to make sure we sufficiently fund our elections,” she said, “and not just think about it every four years as something that we should invest in.”
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