A viral video on social media showed an American voter repeatedly attempting to select Donald Trump, only for the voting machine to display Kamala Harris as the chosen candidate. Officials later inspected the device.

The Laurel County Clerk’s Office in Kentucky announced on October 31 that a voting machine was taken out of service on the first day of early voting. The decision came after a TikTok user posted a 16-second video filmed at the Laurel County Courthouse annex, a temporary polling site. In the video, a voter repeatedly taps the screen to select Trump and his running mate JD Vance, but the machine does not register the choice. On the seventh attempt, the selection for Harris and running mate Tim Walz lights up, even though the voter did not touch that area. The video quickly garnered over 178,000 shares and tens of thousands of comments.

Tony Brown, the Republican Laurel County Clerk, stated that while his staff could not replicate the error, they immediately decommissioned the machine for inspection. At Brown’s request, an investigator from the Kentucky Attorney General’s office arrived that evening. The investigator managed to replicate the issue once but could not do so again.

Brown explained that the error occurred when a user tapped the blank space between the two selection options. “I hate to see this happen in Laurel County. We work very hard to ensure elections are accurate, safe, and secure,” he said.

The faulty device is a digital ballot marking machine. Voters insert a paper ballot, make their selections on the touchscreen, and then retrieve the ballot to verify their choices before placing it in a nearby scanner to record their vote. Brown confirmed that the person in the video was eventually able to select the correct candidates, and the machine was returned to service without further issues. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, also a Republican, reported no additional complaints about vote switching.

Neither the Trump nor Harris campaign has commented on the incident.

Former President Trump has repeatedly made claims of election fraud since losing to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. On October 25, the Republican candidate threatened lengthy prison sentences for election officials and voters he believes are involved in "fraud" if he is re-elected.