Tennessee's coordinator of elections says a wave of voter complaints about ballots not matching their selections comes down to something far less dramatic than vote flipping: people accidentally touching the wrong spot on a screen. Mark Goins addressed the concerns directly this week after voters in Davidson and Williamson counties, including Jackie Herrud and Toni Fitzgerald, reported that their chosen candidates did not match what showed up on the ballot marking machines.
“It's not a vote flipping situation. It's normally like an unintended touch,” Goins said, comparing the error to a fingernail accidentally hitting a neighboring key while typing on a phone, according to WSMV. He said the situations he has personally encountered traced back to unintended touches or user error, and that he has never seen a voting machine act on its own.
Goins told the station his office received one call about the issue before an initial report aired, followed by a handful more calls afterward, including from at least one person who was simply concerned rather than reporting a personal incident. He noted that Tennessee counties use different voting equipment across the state, and that Davidson and Williamson counties specifically use the type of machines he was describing.
Three Chances to Catch a Mistake
According to the station's report, Goins laid out three separate points in the voting process where a person can confirm their selections are correct: the initial touchscreen selection, a review screen that displays all choices after every selection is made, and the physical paper ballot itself. Voters are instructed to touch a candidate's name directly, typically in the center of the selection box, and the ballot marking device lights a chosen name green to indicate a successful selection.
If the intended candidate doesn't turn green, or if a different name appears selected, voters should call over a poll official for assistance before the ballot is ever cast, per the same account. On the review screen, an unintended choice can be corrected by backing out and reselecting, or again by flagging a poll worker for help. The ballot marking machine then produces a physical paper ballot that voters should review one more time before depositing it into the scanner, since all scanners display a message asking voters to review their ballot before submitting it.
That paper ballot, not the touchscreen, is what actually gets tallied. The ballot marking device itself stores no vote; instead, the paper record that enters the tabulator is what gets stored and counted. “They're actually being counted on that paper ballot that's going in the scanner,” Goins said, per WSMV's reporting. Nashville's elections department echoes that sequence in its own voter instructions, telling residents who confirm their ballot is correct to simply insert it into the secure scanner, after which, per Metro Nashville's elections office, “Voting is complete!”
Bipartisan Checks Built Into the System
When an issue is reported, Goins said his office sends both a Republican and a Democratic machine technician to examine the equipment in question. He said the machines themselves are tested before every election with Republican and Democratic checks and balances in place, and that candidates are invited to send observers to watch that testing happen. The Tennessee Secretary of State's office similarly describes a requirement that bipartisan county election commissions ensure voting machines are publicly tested before every election.
Coffee Stirrers Return, This Time by Request
Davidson County first deployed coffee stirrers back in 2024 to help voters avoid unintended touches on the screen, a low-tech fix the county later shelved after some people raised concerns about plastic use. The stirrers are now making a comeback for this election: the county's administrator of elections confirmed they will be available at every early-voting location, though voters will need to ask for one rather than finding them laid out. The stirrers have effectively served as voter styluses in Tennessee since 2020, according to ABC News, which also noted that the environmental concerns that got them pulled are the same ones now being weighed against the convenience of avoiding stray touches.
Beyond candidate races, Goins noted that this year's ballot includes three proposed constitutional amendments. Voters can read the full text at GoVoteTN.gov, and the elections office says reviewing all three takes about eight minutes, per the station's reporting. The GoVoteTN site serves as the state's central hub for that information.
Record Early Voting Numbers Statewide
The scrutiny arrives amid a surge in early voting participation. Goins said turnout during early voting has been close to 100,000 votes a day statewide. Separately, Davidson County saw a 604.97% jump in voters during the first four days of this year's early voting compared with 2022, according to WKRN. The county's elections administrator estimated that 20% to 25% of voters would cast ballots early this cycle, potentially pushing more than 45% of registered voters to vote before Election Day.
The increase isn't confined to Nashville. WKRN's report also found Wilson County logged a 61.77% jump in early voters compared with 2022, a rise that official attributed partly to the county's registered-voter rolls growing from 82,000 in 2018 to 115,000 today.
