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Stella Parton says her ballot switched to Marsha Blackburn while voting in Tennessee

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Coverage spectrum

Covered by 3 outlets across the spectrum.

3 articles in total. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Stella Parton, sister of Dolly Parton, said on Facebook that she had to correct her ballot several times during early voting in Tennessee because it kept defaulting to Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor. Parton, a Democrat, said she voted at the Hermitage Library and urged voters to check their ballots before printing. Newsweek reports that Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said the state’s voting systems are designed with multiple safeguards to help ensure ballots are recorded consistent with voter intent, and that voters can check their selections on a review screen before casting. The coverage does not include a finding on what caused the problem.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. Stella Parton said her ballot kept switching to Marsha Blackburn during early voting in Tennessee.

    Reported byLeft1Center1Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Independent
    Center
    Newsweek
    Right
    The Washington Times

  2. Stella Parton said she voted at the Hermitage Library and had to correct her selection more than once.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Independent
    Center
    Newsweek

  3. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn is running for governor.

    Reported byLeft1Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Independent
    Right
    The Washington Times

  4. Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said the state’s voting systems are designed with multiple safeguards to help ensure ballots are recorded consistent with voter intent.

    One outletNewsweek· Center

  5. Election administrators said voters can verify their selections on the review screen before casting their ballots.

    One outletNewsweek· Center

What is contested

Where accounts differ

Points the coverage does not agree on, and who says what.

  • The voting machine switched Parton’s selections to Marsha Blackburn.

    Stella Parton says it happened several times and that she corrected it each time. Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins says the systems are designed with safeguards to record ballots consistent with voter intent, as reported by Newsweek. No supplied article reports a finding on the cause.

How each side tells it

Compare views

All three outlets report that Stella Parton said her ballot repeatedly switched to Marsha Blackburn during early voting in Tennessee. The center outlet puts the state’s response first, while the left and right headlines present the switch as her claim, with the left calling it an allegation of vote rigging.

  • the left

    1 outlet

    The Independent presents the claim as a voting machine repeatedly changing a vote to Republican, and its description calls it serious allegations of vote rigging.

    Dolly Parton’s sister claims Tennessee voting machine flipped her vote to Republican
    The IndependentLeftAll left-leaning headlines

  • the center

    1 outlet

    Newsweek frames the story as a state response to a sister’s post, putting ‘Rigging’ in scare quotes and leading with election officials’ safeguards.

    Tennessee Responds to Dolly Parton Sister's Election 'Rigging' Post
    NewsweekCenterAll center headlines

  • the right

    1 outlet

    The Washington Times headline reports Parton’s claim that her ballot switched to a GOP candidate, with the specific detail of switching three times.

    Dolly Parton's sister claims her ballot switched to GOP candidate while voting in Tennessee
    The Washington TimesRightAll right-leaning headlines

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

  • Left1

    serious allegations of vote rigging

  • Center0

    No loaded words in its own voice.

  • Right0

    No loaded words in its own voice.

In the outlets’ own words

  • Sensational language

    serious allegations of vote riggingMore neutral: said her ballot was recorded incorrectly

    The outlet’s own description adds seriousness and frames the claim as vote rigging before any evidence is reported.

    …Parton, younger sister of the late country music star, has raised serious allegations of vote rigging in Tennessee

    Used byThe Independent (Left)

See the full language guide

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

1 outlet

Leads with

  • voting machine changed the vote
  • allegations of vote rigging
  • Republican candidate Blackburn
  • Blackburn’s polling lead
See the headline from the leftHide the headlines
  • The IndependentLeft

    Dolly Parton’s sister claims Tennessee voting machine flipped her vote to Republican

    Stella Parton, younger sister of the late country music star, has raised Sensational language“serious allegations of vote rigging”The outlet’s own description adds seriousness and frames the claim as vote rigging before any evidence is reported.More neutral: said her ballot was recorded incorrectlyDisagree with this highlight? in Tennessee

    Read at The Independent (opens in a new tab)

From the center

1 outlet

Leads with

  • state election officials’ response
  • voting system safeguards
  • review screen to correct errors
  • reports of voter problems

Leaves out

  • Blackburn’s race against Democrat Jerri Green

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the headline from the centerHide the headlines
  • NewsweekCenter

    Tennessee Responds to Dolly Parton Sister's Election 'Rigging' Post

    Stella Parton, the sister of country music icon Dolly Parton, said she had trouble casting her ballot in Tennessee.

    Read at Newsweek (opens in a new tab)

From the right

1 outlet

Leads with

  • ballot switched to GOP candidate
  • changed three times
  • Blackburn running for governor
  • Nov. 3 midterm election
See the headline from the rightHide the headlines
  • The Washington TimesRight

    Dolly Parton's sister claims her ballot switched to GOP candidate while voting in Tennessee

    Dolly Parton's sister Stella Parton says that while she was voting early in Tennessee ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, her ballot changed three times to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who's running for governor.

    Read at The Washington Times (opens in a new tab)

Articles you open from here build My Mix, a private picture of how your reading spreads across the spectrum, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    14 hr 35 min later

    Its first report, Oct 22, 10:01 AM EDT

  • Center

    First to report

    Newsweek, Oct 21, 7:26 PM EDT

  • Right

    15 hr 45 min later

    Its first report, Oct 22, 11:11 AM EDT

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. NewsweekCenterOct 21, 7:26 PM EDT
  2. The IndependentLeftOct 22, 10:01 AM EDT
  3. The Washington TimesRightOct 22, 11:11 AM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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