Tarrant County invites you to test voting machines before the Nov. 8 midterm election
Hoping to build confidence in the election process, Tarrant County is inviting members of the public to test out its voting machines.
Questions of election integrity have been amplified in the years since the 2020 election, as former President Donald Trump and other top officials sow distrust in the integrity of the ballot box with unsubstantiated claims of fraud. Tarrant County has been no exception with some people raising concerns about voting machines and the potential of fraud. Experts have said such claims are unfounded.
For the past few days Election Administrator Heider Garcia and the Tarrant County election department have been testing the machines ahead of the November election as required by state law, but this year Garcia is offering a new test to try and boost trust in the process.
Members of the public on Friday will have the opportunity to visit the Tarrant County Election Administration office at 2700 Premier St., Fort Worth between 8:30 and 10 a.m.
Testers will be given a blank ballot that can be marked however they choose. At the end of the day, those ballots will be hand counted to make sure they were counted properly by the machines.
“Sneak preview, it’s going to match,” Garcia said in a Monday interview with the Star-Telegram.
Testing over the past week has included making sure various combinations of ballot selections are correctly marked and counted. But Garcia said he has noticed on social media distrust in the tests because they lack randomness. This test folds that randomness back in.
Election Day is Nov. 8., with early voting starting Oct. 24. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 11.
Want to test the voting machines?
When: 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday.
Where: Tarrant County Election Administration, 2700 Premier St., Fort Worth
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 11:37 AM.
