NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — With early voting underway, we've been hearing from some voters about problems when selecting candidates using Metro Nashville's touch screen system.
So we went to election officials to learn more and find a solution!
With early voting underway, the Davidson County Election Commission says they're investigating several complaints from voters who say they pressed one name on their computerized voting display and yet another name lit up.
We're looking into why this is happening and the solution that might involve something you use in your morning coffee.
We heard from several of you about this issue when voting, so we wanted to look into it for you.
We asked Davidson County Election Administrator Jeff Roberts.
"Once we started hearing from multiple sites, we figured there must be some issue," said Roberts.
Roberts says turns out, the issue has to do with the small square box inside each rectangle containing a candidate's name on the touch screen.
"Typically its the top two names here, and people are wanting to click the second name, they're putting their finger on this little box and its so close to the line for the first name, that's what the machine is picking up," he explained.
But there's an easy solution to this: Roberts says you can touch anywhere in the large rectangle, like right on a candidates name, to mark your ballot, you don't have to aim for that small square.
"We have a new sign on all the machines, if you tap the middle of the name that will solve the problem," added Roberts.
But this touch screen voting technology isn't new in Nashville, it's been used for several years. So why are we starting to hear these issues now?
Roberts says it has to do with a change in handing out those red stir sticks voters have used to touch the voting screens starting during the pandemic.
"This was the first election we didn't pass out the stir sticks the very first day," he said. "We thought we'd be environmentally conscious here, we won't use these as they're not recyclable."
But after those troubles, the stir sticks are back.
It's important to note, even after selecting votes, voters have two chances to catch any errors or mistakes. Once on the screen before your ballot is printed, and again after your selections are printed on your voting ballot.
Before dropping your ballot in the box, you can always ask for a do-over.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Jason.Lamb@newschannel5.com.
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