ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Social media rumors have emerged recently about voting machines in the Rock Island County Clerk's office flipping votes, and the county clerk said the mistakes are coming from voters.
The election office says they replaced the machine in question after one woman reported an issue.
"Just to be on the safe side, we thought it might be good to switch that machine out with another older machine," Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney said.
The office did not announce when it swapped the machines, and still continued to hear complaints. Kinney thinks people are creating an issue, giving voters a reason to contest the upcoming results.
"They didn't know that we switched it out. They came in and they still complained about what they thought was the same machine. And let me add this too, both judges, the Republican judge and the Democratic judge, thought this lady was a set up," Kinney added.
The offices believes most of the ballot mistakes are due to voter error. The machine's screens are extremely sensitive, and people with longer fingernails are more likely to accidentally press the wrong button. To combat this issue, the county clerk office is providing voters with the option of using a touchscreen stylus.
There's nothing the office can do once a ballot is cast, so Kinney encourages voters to take their time and make sure everything looks correct.
"When you write a text, don't you look back before you hit send? I know I do, and I make corrections too. It's the same concept," Kinney said.
The Rock Island County Clerk's Office is still seeing a steady crowd of voters since the incident began. Each of the voters seem to be confident in the office's abilities to conduct a fair election.
"I do have confidence in how they're running things," Elizabeth Jayathan said.
"I didn't think it was something I needed to worry about. As long as they switched the machines out, I have full confidence in there," Megan Essex said.
"My machine was good. I double checked, triple checked. They do give you the ability to double check and all that, so I felt pretty comfortable with it," Ray Green said.
Kinney's office has used the same voting machines since 2006. However, they are planning to use new ones in 2026.