At least three voting machines malfunctioned during Mississippi's gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.
Cellphone video taken by Sally Walker shows constituent Ethan Peterson attempting to vote for former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller. Instead, the machine keeps selecting Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, his opponent, reports NBC News.
"It is not letting me vote for who I want to vote for," he said while pressing the button multiple times.
"How can that happen?" asked an onlooker.
Republicans Waller and Reeves were running for a spot on the ballot for the gubernatorial race in November 2019. Reeves was declared the winner after securing 54% of the vote, according to WAPT.
Waller complimented his team for running "a campaign we can be proud of." Reeves promised to earn the votes of people who initially favored Waller. Reeves also vowed to win to "ensure that Mississippi does not elect a liberal Democrat to the office of governor." Two main points of Reeves' campaign were cutting taxes and voting against Medicaid expansion.
The faulty machine was located in Oxford and recorded 19 votes before it was retired. Anna Moak, a spokesperson for Mississippi's Secretary of State office, told The Clarion-Ledger the "machines are county-owned and tested by local officials."
"To our knowledge, only one machine was malfunctioning," she added.
However, election officials confirmed two other machines in Calhoun County experienced the same issue. The Waller campaign claims they received complaints from voters at precincts in several counties including Leflore, Lamar, Pearl River, Lincoln, Washington, Forrest and Scott.
TSX manufactured all of the machines, and the state purchased them from Election Systems and Software.
"We're doing what we can to rectify the situation," said Circuit Clerk Carlton Baker.
Peterson doesn't believe there was any foul play, but he is urging other voters to be careful.
"My intent is not to feed the conspiracy monster," Peterson said. "Make sure your vote is correct before you hit go because if I wasn't paying attention, I would have voted for the guy I didn't want to."
