Election Day is right around the corner, and Stella Parton – the younger sister of the late, great Dolly Parton – took to social media recently to make claims that someone is trying to rig the election.
Dolly Parton famously never spoke about politics. Her sister, on the other hand, does so early and often. Over the years, Stella has shared her political views on many occasions, and hasn’t ever shied away from telling the world how she feels about President Donald Trump and his policies.
Even outside of the political world, Stella is very outspoken. Dolly’s younger sister always went to bat for country music star sister online as well, using choice words when Elle King botched her Opry performance to honor Dolly, and also defended Dolly when she received criticism for dressing as a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader during her Thanksgiving Day performance in 2023.
All that to say, Stella Parton has a history of sharing her unfiltered views on the world. That trend continued when she went to the ballot for early voting in Nashville, and apparently had some difficulty with the voting machine. She wasn’t alone in that… WSMV 4 did run a story that some early voters in the Nashville area were having an issue with machines displaying a different candidate than the one they wanted to choose.
That’s evidently what played out for Stella Parton too, so she jumped on Facebook and shared this messages with her followers:
Not exactly what you want to hear with the November 3 midterm elections quickly approaching.
The good news is that voters do have a number of different ways to verify their selections. Obviously, a double check on the initial voting screen is doable (sounds like that’s what Stella Parton had to do a handful of times, based on what she said). Then there’s a final review screen, and then the paper ballot that’s printed out by the machine.
Those are all great ways to make sure the vote you are intending to cast goes to the right place.
Though there’s been plenty of talk about the voting machines in the Nashville area, the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office told WSMV 4 that “among roughly 400,000 voters who have cast ballots so far in the November election period, it has received one complaint matching that type of issue.”
What Stella Parton had to say is a bit concerning, and at least one other voter has experienced similar issues, however, it seems like it can be easily remedied by double checking to see if the buttons were pressed correctly and the input was received. In the comments of her own post, Stella added this to the discourse:
“And we have people asking why we’re so angry. I’m more frightened and frustrated than angry.”
Not sure if it is the conspiracy that Stella wants us to think it…
