Voting machine issues in North Texas rooted in mechanical error — not malice, experts say

Voting machine issues plagued some polling locations in North Texas during the first week of early voting, but counties nonetheless saw high turnout.

As voters cast ballots for big-ticket races like the presidential and senatorial races, technical difficulties from voter check-in to ballot receptacles contributed to already long wait times in some areas.

But while those issues often attract attention, they come with the territory of any machinery, according to University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus.

"Everybody has computers, everybody has phones, sometimes there are glitches," Rottinghaus said. "It's not the case that this is something that means that the election is being stolen or that your vote's not being counted."

On Monday — the first day of early voting — Dallas County reported software issues with its poll book system used for checking in voters and printing out ballot types. The issues contributed to long wait times, but the county still reported more than 56,000 people who cast ballots on the first day.

Some residents commented on the Dallas County Elections Facebook page in favor of paper ballots instead of machines. But Rottinghaus said with any voting system there is good and bad.

While paper ballots give the ability to physically hold and mark ballots, there can be sorting issues when collecting and counting and possibly recounting them, Rottinghaus said.

"For every voting mechanism there's a tradeoff," he said. "And the machines are the most effective way to be able to transfer a person's vote into the system and then to have that counted and potentially recounted if need be."

He added that when it comes to recounting, voting machines are consistently low in error, making them the preferred method to facilitate voting.

Still, issues cropped up across parts of North Texas.

At Lochwood Branch Library, one KERA employee encountered a faulty machine used to receive ballots. Instead, paper ballots were put in a basket under the machine.

Nicholas Solorzano, Dallas County Elections communications manager, said in an email that the issue was reported around noon on Thursday and was resolved by the afternoon.

He said when these machines, called a vote tabulator, malfunction, the standard procedure is to place paper ballots in the "emergency ballot bin" under the machine and "securely locked".

"At the end of the day, these ballots are processed and counted in the same manner as all other ballots," Solorzano said in the email.

In Collin County, Deputy Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux said there were minor issues with ballot jams at the Princeton Municipal Center on the first day of early voting, but poll workers were able to resolve and document votes despite the issue.

Breaux also said his office had received some complaints anbout electioneering within polling locations. But he added he did not suspect bad intentions.

"I think voters are excited to endorse their candidates,” Breaux said in a email. “Sometimes, a little too excited.”

Denton County Elections Administrator Frank Phillips told the Denton Record-Chronicle there were no widespread hiccups reported at county polling locations. At least one voter experienced delays with the assisted curbside voting option, the Record-Chronicle reported.

Tarrant County reported 58,000 ballots cast on the first day of early voting. Out of those votes, one person reported a selection they made on the machine was different from what was printed on the ballot.

Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said in a video statement that his office believes the selection was made on the machine but may have not been the selection the voter wanted.

"This is not uncommon and there's a practice in place called spoiling the ballot to handle this," Ludwig said. "The individual notified the league clerk that they needed to spoil their ballot and he was issued a new ballot and able to vote."

Election security has been top of mind for counties in recent years.

Tarrant County created an Election Integrity Task Force in 2023 to fight voter fraud. It was created by Sheriff Bill Waybourn, County Judge Tim O’Hare and District Attorney Judge Phil Sorrells without consulting Garcia, the elections administrator at the time.

KERA reported earlier this year that Tarrant County's Election Integrity Task Force received 82 complaints of alleged voter fraud between February 2023 to May of this year.

In that time, zero charges were filed.

This story has been updated to include comments from Dallas County Elections officials.

Got a tip? Email Megan Cardona at mcardona@kera.org.

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