Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that there were problems with voting machines being reported across the US, citing a CNN report.
Just out according to @CNN: "Utah officials report voting machine problems across entire country"
CNN's Brian Stelter was quick to point that this is not true.
No. Utah officials reported machine problems across one entire COUNTY, not the entire COUNTRY. https://t.co/6jWMw7qzvQ
Trump was responding to a report from Wolf Blitzer on CNN about faulty voting machines in a Washington County in Utah.
Utah election officials reported a "technical snafu" affecting all 37 polling stations in a county, but did not affect any stations in Salt Lake City, the most populated part of the state.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has alleged that the election is rigged. Three weeks ago he claimed there would be "large scale voter fraud."
Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD
There have been a few problems on Tuesday, but they've been fairly minor in comparison to Trump's apocalyptic predictions. And they haven't all been shady Democrats, as Trump suggested.
A Houston Chronicle reporter tweeted that a man with a gun and a sign that read "FAGGOTS VOTE DEM" was escorted from a polling place in Spring, Texas.
Man with "FAGGOTS VOTE DEM" sign + handgun detained after moving closer to polls in Spring Tx @HoustonChron #Houvote
Deputies handcuffed man with sign&gun near his truck, which is just outside 100ft mark from the polls
Man with gun and "FAGGOTS VOTE DEM" sign released. No charges, police say in Spring tx @HoustonChron #Houvote
The incident quickly de-escalated, though.
BuzzFeed News confirmed with the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office that officers responded to the man at the polls and that he did have a gun on his hip and an offensive sign.
Chief Matt Rodrigue told BuzzFeed News that the man did not enter the polling place, which would have been a third-degree felony.
The incident resolved without a physical altercation, Rodrigue told BuzzFeed News, and even without a verbal one; the man reportedly did not get into arguments with voters.
The local district attorney's office determined that no crime had taken place and declined to press charges.
Rodrigue said his department had not received any other reports of voter intimidation.
The Chronicle reported few issues beyond long lines and delays due to voting machine malfunctions, including one update that read, "10:30 a.m. - No issues for voters at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Pasadena."
Brittany Foreman, a voter in Pennsylvania, alleged in a video posted to the the Philadelphia GOP's Twitter account that she had witnessed voter fraud.
"I witnessed committee member John Bush assisting people on voting. I was told by assistants that he was not supposed to be in the room."
"My name is Brittany Foreman... and today I witnessed Voter Fraud." #VoterFraud ILLEGAL. Please SHARE
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office told BuzzFeed News it was looking into Foreman's claims.
Philly District Attorney's office tells me they have an ADA on site, looking into this: https://t.co/PRSKxK3w8K
Overall, though, the DA's office was not concerned that voting and the polls had been severely compromised.
Philly DA: 68 total calls involving the polls. No major issues.
Pittsburgh local news reported that two machines in one district and others scattered throughout the city changed votes to favor Clinton.
The issue was not widespread.
A video of an allegedly broken voting machine in Philadelphia received widespread attention on Twitter.
this is what I was talking about, they fixed it but it was on some nut shit at first.
When BuzzFeed News spoke with the author of the tape, however, he said he had, in fact, been able to vote for Donald Trump. The machine was fixed by the time he recorded his video.
From BuzzFeed News cybersecurity correspondent Sheera Frenkel's story on the video:
Elections officials stressed to BuzzFeed News that machines break during every election year, and that broken machines are immediately replaced or fixed. So far, voting machine problems have been reported in North Carolina, New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, and Ohio, though in each cases they have been limited to isolated machines that were immediately fixed.
Hacking an election is actually quite difficult.
Kay Stimson, from the National Association of Secretaries of State, told BuzzFeed News that as of 2 p.m. ET there had been no reports of any widespread issues affecting voting machines.
The machines haven't been malfunctioning any more than usual.
“There are isolated reports of issues, with specific machines. What we are seeing are a lot of places dealing with a heavy volume of turnout, trying to brace for how to deal with lines building up,” said Kay Stimson, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the organization to which each state reports issues it might be having during election day. “We aren’t seeing anything widespread, we aren’t seeing any widespread issues.”