Texas Vote Flipping: Are Donald Trump Votes Getting Changed To Hillary Clinton Votes?

Texas vote flipping has taken center stage following claims by Donald Trump. The vote flipping rumors began on social media, with a claim that people voting for Donald Trump were having their votes changed to support Hillary Clinton. A report by CNN has local officials stating that there is no problem or foundation for concern.

Despite what the Texas officials have been stating, Trump posted on Twitter that he has received a lot of call-ins about people experiencing the vote flipping. It continued a trend of Trump telling supporters that the 2016 presidential election has already been rigged against him winning. It also contradicts the “human error” that officials have blamed for the voting problems.

Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner spoke about the vote flipping, following several situations that were brought to her attention. In each of the cases that have taken place in her county, the potential vote flipping has been blamed on human error.

“There is nothing wrong with any of the machines we use for voting. They do not flip your vote. They do not flip parties. Humans do that.”

Voter confusion is something that comes up during most election cycles, and that is what Shannon Lackey, the elections administrator at Randall County, stated when she was asked about vote flipping taking place. Randall County is where the Texas Facebook user who first complained about the vote flipping resides. This is also the person who Donald Trump claimed had her vote switched to Hillary Clinton. Lackey addressed that claim in her own statement to CNN.

“Absolutely not… It is not happening in any way, shape or form. I stand 100% behind what I do. I stand behind my machines, my staff.”

With nearly every voting machine, users are given a summary screen to confirm who they have voted for in a given election. It is on this screen that voters can double check which candidate has been selected on their respective ballots. From there, it is an easy step to shift a vote to the other candidate if anything has been selected accidentally or incorrectly.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has seized upon social media stories about vote flipping to further allege that “rigging” is taking place around the country. Trump also took to his Twitter account to let his followers know his thoughts on the matter.

A lot of call-ins about vote flipping at the voting booths in Texas. People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2016

This isn’t the first time that Donald Trump has alluded to the 2016 election being rigged and it has become a rallying point for his supporters. Social media outlets like Facebook have become inundated with supporters laying out similar claims. It’s something that many voting officials around the country have complained about in recent days.

Voting officials are fed up with Donald Trump’s talk of a “rigged” election https://t.co/NV0OUeWIA4 pic.twitter.com/sqm877zeW9

— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) October 27, 2016

A recent report by Time stated that vote flipping does happen, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean that an election is rigged. The report discusses how a malfunction can take place in such a way that the candidate that a voter initially tries to select doesn’t get registered correctly. The potential problem is addressed a bit further in the news piece.

“This kind of glitch, known aptly as “vote flipping,” happens very rarely. Out of tens of millions of votes cast, there have been a few hundred reports of vote flipping every year for the past decade. This year is no exception. A handful of counties in North Carolina, Texas, and Nevada have reported isolated problems with machines vote flipping in the last couple weeks.”

A key word that the report uses to discuss the situation is “isolated.” This suggests that the problems that some people have expressed on social media can be simply and quickly addressed by the voters themselves. While there is circumstantial evidence of the vote flipping taking place, officials don’t believe it will affect whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton wins the election.

[Featured Image by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images]