A video claiming to show a touchscreen voting machine “caught on camera” casting a ballot for a Democrat when Republican was selected is going viral across social media.
The video, posted by various pages on Facebook but most noticeably by “Crooked Government” urges viewers to ask for a paper ballot.
Voting Machine Caught on Camera Casting Ballot for Democrat when Selecting Republican.
DEMAND A PAPER BALLOT – IT IS YOUR RIGHT BY LAW!
However, recent instances of the video we’ve seen fail to address the pertinent fact that the video has nothing to do with the 2016 general election, which, given the timing of the upload, this appears to be the implication (several US states have just opened for early voting, at the time of writing) and many commenters have clearly mistook the video for one taken during this 2016 early voting process.
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This video was actually taken back in 2014 in Virginia, during the 2014 congressional elections (see it on YouTube here.) The reason listed for the issues that arose in the video was a calibration error; not entirely out of the realms of possibility given the number of touchscreen devices used during the elections across the United States that year.
Of course, many rumours of “rigged elections” ensued – as they do every election year – though we would imagine that selecting the wrong candidate right in front of the voter would not be a particularly successful method of rigging the election given that the voter can clearly see that the incorrect candidate had been selected. And to quash those conspiracy theories even further, the democrat listed on the touchscreen in the video – Suzanne Patrick – actually lost that vote 41% to 58% to republican Scott Rigell.
The Virginia Department of Elections claimed any machines exhibiting miscalibration were immediately taken out of service.