With early voting underway across the United States ahead of the November 3, 2026 elections, images of machines appearing to override the selection of voters are spreading across social media. But AFP found three widely shared clips are unrelated to the midterms. The videos date back to 2014, 2018 and 2019 and show election technology no longer in use in Mississippi, Virginia or Indiana.
"Can you say national emergency!!!?" says an October 20, 2026 post on X. "Electronic voting machine will not let voter select the Republican candidate that they want to vote for and automatically selects the Democrat candidate instead."
The post shows two clips in which voters using touch screen machines appear to select one name but their votes mark a different candidate. In the first clip, neither name carries a visible party affiliation.
A second set of posts spread a similar video of a machine appearing to favor a Republican candidate.
"WHEN YOU USE A MACHINE TO ELECTE [sic] A DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY DIVERT YOUR VOTE TO THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE," one Threads post sharing that clip warns.
The clips were seen millions of times in the final two weeks leading to pivotal US elections.
The narrative echoes debunked claims from past elections, but there is no evidence that voting machines are linked to widespread fraud (archived here). Dominion Voting Systems received millions to settle defamation suits over false claims of vote rigging in the 2020 election.
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