A circulating video purportedly proves that a touch screen voting machine switched a vote from Democrat Tobi Beck to Republican Jim Baird during the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.
The footage was actually captured at a polling station in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, way back in 2018, rather than in 2026. Local reports from that period confirmed that officials only encountered a handful of similar glitches, which were attributed to minor touch screen calibration errors. Bipartisan reviews by both Democratic and Republican representatives concluded there was no evidence of widespread or intentional ballot tampering.
Late October social media posts claimed to capture live proof of a touch screen voting terminal “flipping” a vote meant for a Democratic candidate over to her Republican rival during the current U.S. midterms.
This footage rolled out alongside a broader wave of misinformation alleging that voting equipment in states like Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and South Carolina was intentionally altering voter selections.
Within the video, a user tries to tap the name of Democratic contender Tobi Beck, but the display registers an “X” next to the Republican candidate, Jim Baird.
On October 21, for instance, a Facebook user shared the video (archived) accompanied by the warning: “Warning! Seriously! Voting machines across the country are changing votes. Someone records this video of exactly what is happening.”
Other accounts circulated the same clip across platforms like Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived), and X (archived), characterizing the incident as an election “glitch” or proof of rigging.
Ultimately, while the video itself appears authentic and free of AI manipulation or digital fabrication, it dates back to the 2018 midterm elections in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Election officials from both sides of the aisle attributed the issue at the time strictly to improper touch screen calibration. Consequently, the claim has been classified as miscaptioned.
Mike Smith, an election specialist with the Tippecanoe County Board of Elections & Registration, told Snopes, “Like many jurisdictions, Tippecanoe County is experiencing a coordinated attack of misinformation and disinformation in an unfortunate attempt by bad actors to undermine voter confidence in the election process.” He dismissed claims of deliberate vote switching as completely false, referring to the resurfaced clip as deceptive and misleading.
What social media posts failed to clarify
On Election Day in 2018, the Lafayette Journal & Courier covered the footage, pinpointing its origin and noting that similar complaints had surfaced earlier during the early voting period.
According to the report, Christa Coffey, who served as county clerk at the time, received seven formal complaints on the first day of early voting, though records did not clarify whether those individuals successfully corrected their ballots before casting them. Local Democratic and Republican representatives investigated the incidents and found no evidence of widespread or intentional tampering.
The local Democratic Party chairwoman at the time was quoted addressing the calibration error:
On Tuesday, Heather Maddox, Tippecanoe County Democratic Party chairwoman, said she was frustrated over the situation.
“I think you could have anticipated this, with what happened earlier,” Maddox said. “I don’t think there’s any maliciousness involved, believe me, I don’t. It’s a calibration thing. But people have to feel confident in the equipment, and they didn’t in this case.”
Coffey previously encouraged voters to utilize the summary screen at the conclusion of the voting process to verify their choices and to immediately notify poll workers of any discrepancies.
In the actual 2018 contest for Indiana’s 4th Congressional District, Republican candidate Baird ultimately won a decisive victory over Democrat Beck (by a wide margin).
In the years since, Indiana has introduced paper trail mechanisms across its voting infrastructure, which the state describes as “a security measure that allows voters to independently verify their vote was correctly recorded.”