Dolly Parton’s Sister Says Voting Machine Switched Ballot to GOP

Dolly Parton’s sister Stella says a Tennessee voting machine repeatedly changed her selection to a Republican candidate she claims she would never support.

The 77-year-old country singer-songwriter said she visited the Hermitage branch of the Nashville Public Library last week to vote in the midterm elections.

According to Parton, she had to correct her ballot three times after the machine allegedly recorded a vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn.

“In Tennessee last week at the Hermitage Library where I voted, I had to go back three times and correct my vote because it kept defaulting to Marsha Blackburn,” Parton wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “I would never vote for her for anything.”

Parton did not identify the candidate she ultimately chose. However, she has repeatedly criticized Republicans on social media and indicated that her political views are liberal.

Democrat Jerri Green is running for governor in Tennessee, alongside 12 independent candidates.

“I’m putting this out here because when we vote, we take it seriously but we try not to hold up the long lines. Do it anyway. Don’t let them rig this election,” Parton added.

She also said she felt “frightened and frustrated” by what she described as an injustice, while making unsupported claims about possible election interference involving Russia and Elon Musk.

“This is so sad and heartbreaking but to think this is what it’s come to makes me angry for every good and innocent person in this country,” she wrote.

“To think people like Elon Musk and Russian bots may be upended another election makes my skin crawl. May they all die and worms eat them.”

There is no credible evidence that Russia or the tech mogul has interfered with Tennessee’s election operations.

State election officials denied Parton’s account in a statement to The Tennessean. “Tennessee’s voting systems are designed with multiple safeguards to help ensure that ballots are recorded consistent with voter intent,” they said.

Several voters nevertheless responded to Parton’s Facebook post by describing similar issues at polling locations around the state.

“That happened to me too in Brentwood, at the Holt Library. Luckily I caught it!” one commenter wrote.

Another person said the machine did the same thing but added that they checked the ballot before printing it to ensure Jerri Green was selected.

A user who said they also voted at the Hermitage library wrote: “That’s where I voted on the second day. I had to hit the button for Jerri three times before it took. I did look at the printout to make sure that is exactly who it said I voted for.”

Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins told WSMV that the reported problems did not amount to votes being switched.

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“It’s more like an unintended touch that they may not even realize,” he said.

Chad Gray, election administrator in Williamson County, just outside of Nashville, said officials there had found no discrepancies in the voting equipment.

If problems or questions do arise, he said, people from each party will examine the devices and make sure they are working properly.

Regardless, Parton was outraged by all the voting machine ‘hiccups’ experienced by her fans and penned several posts Thursday calling for ‘accountability’ from lawmakers.

‘When you are an honest person like most of us are, we try to trust the process but I’m livid over this, not only for myself but for every other voter in this country,’ she wrote.

Her angry tirade saw her blame the GOP and President Donald Trump for the ‘division in our country’ and alleged that MAGA allies will ignore the issue at hand.

‘This voting issue will turn out like everything else they stick their noses into, a freaking disaster,’ Parton added.

In a series of follow-up posts, Parton claimed that her post prompted an influx of hateful commentary from Republicans who ‘think my voice should be silenced.’

She says she received death threats over her remarks and that critics have accused the Democratic Party of having paid her to ‘lie about the voting machines.’

Parton denied being paid by any political party for her commentary, although Our News Outlet was unable to independently verify this claim, or her allegations of being threatened.

The musician concluded her rant with an apparent ode to her late sister, Dolly, who died aged 80 on August 25, 2026 after a battle with cancer.

‘I can’t believe in my last years of life we have such horrible people in charge of this beautiful experiment called; The United States of America,’ she wrote.

‘My big sister’s heart was broken over it but she respected my work. We just worked differently. She would be concerned about me today, when my life was threatened, just like she used to be concerned when I raced cars in celebrity races.’

Dolly was famously private about politics and never revealed who she voted for.

She was hailed as one of the few celebrities equally loved by American liberals and conservatives in the wake of her death.