This article has been updated on 11/10/22 with a statement from Amazon.
Alexa owners in Tennessee were given false information about what hours they are able to vote on Tuesday in the midterm elections.
Numerous reports have emerged of Tennessee residents who have found that when they ask the Amazon-owned virtual assistant technology what hours they are able to vote in the midterm elections, Alexa responds, “There are no polling hours in Tennessee.” Polling hours in various counties throughout Tennessee opened today at 8 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m. ET, with some exceptions in poll opening times.
A source provided The Daily Wire with a photo of a wall-mounted device with Alexa’s full response: “There are no polling hours in Tennessee. Ballots must be sent by mail before election day, or returned to a designated ballot drop box or in person to the county elections department by 8 p.m. on Election Day.”
Image provided to The Daily Wire
The Daily Wire attempted to speak to a representative of Amazon to alert them of the issue, but it is unclear after a 27 minute phone call if the matter would be resolved. When Alexa owners asked the virtual assistant what the polling hours are in other states, she responded with the hours that matched top Google responses.
The office of Tre Hargett, Tennessee’s Secretary of State, was informed of the potential deterrent to voters, and promptly responded that he would be looking into the matter. Hargett has served as Tennessee’s Secretary of State since 2009.
The Tennessee Secretary of State website offers a portal that provides services and information for Tennesseans to access election information. The portal, GoVoteTN, allowed users to view early voting dates and times, find polling locations, view and mark sample ballots.
After this article was published, a spokesperson from Amazon reached out to The Daily Wire on Thursday, November 10.
“This response was an error that we quickly fixed when it was brought to our attention,” said the Amazon representative. “We continually audit and improve the systems we have in place for detecting and blocking inaccurate content, and will continue working to prevent something like this from happening in the future.”