Voters in Tennessee, including Dolly Parton's sister Stella Parton, have taken to social media with complaints of malfunctioning voting machines that have defaulted to Republican candidates, sparking rumors of foul play. Local and national outlets across the political spectrum spoke with Tennessee officials about the potential user errors that have contributed to the issue.

The Details: Stella Parton wrote on Facebook, "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… Don't let them rig this election." Marsha Blackburn is the Republican candidate running for governor in Tennessee. The post received over 19.7 thousand reactions at the time of publication and sparked hundreds of comments from people who said they, or people they know, experienced something similar when voting early.

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, updated her birth certificate in Illinois in June but was denied when she attempted to make the same change to her Tennessee driver’s license. DMV officials cited SB1440, a law signed by Gov. Bill Lee (R) in 2023 that requires state-issued identification documents to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.

“June 2026, [Doe] changed her Illinois birth certificate to reflect her sex,” reads the complaint, as reported by WVLT. “[Doe] attended the Knox County Department of Motor Vehicles to change her driver’s license… she was told due to [a Tennessee law] that she would be unable to have her driver’s license reflect her sex.”

A transgender Knox County woman is suing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Jeff Long, the state’s homeland security commissioner, after being denied a change on her driver’s license reflecting her transition.

Paris Lee was shot six times and killed by Samuel Ward Jr.; this is an indisputable fact. Ward was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in May 2025. He claimed it was self-defense, but the jury didn’t buy it.

This week, however, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction. A three-judge panel declared that the jury was under the impression Lee was cisgender; that in not disclosing the victim’s status as a trans woman, the trial judge “misled” the jury; and that Ward was entitled to a new trial where he could use this fact to bolster his claim of self-defense.