Tarrant County reports one ballot did not correctly reflect voter’s choice for president
A printed ballot did not correctly reflect a voter’s choice for president on Monday, Oct. 21, the first day of early voting, according to Tarrant County.
When Tarrant County voters cast their ballot, they make their selections on a screen and then a paper ballot is printed for review. That paper ballot is then cast.
“In one reported instance, a voter reviewed their printed ballot and found it did not correctly reflect his choice for President. The original ballot was spoiled, and the voter re-marked a new ballot with his preferred choice reflected,” the county said in a news release on Tuesday.
“Tarrant County Elections has no reason to believe that votes are being switched by the voting system,” the news release states.
Helen Bundschu, a Republican election judge at the White Settlement Library, told the Star-Telegram that she hasn’t had issues with ballots changing. She said people can pick the wrong candidate if they’re not careful.
In a post on X, County Judge Tim O’Hare said people can vote with confidence in Tarrant County.
“Voters should always review their choices on the screen before printing the paper ballot,” he wrote. “After the paper ballot is printed, voters should review their choices again before casting their ballot. If any intended selection is not listed on your paper ballot, you may ask the Election Judge to spoil your ballot, and you will receive a new ballot.”
Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said in a video shared on the Election Department’s X account said nearly 102,000 people had voted early in the county, as of the time of the video.
One person claimed that the vote selected on their machine was not the vote that appeared on the printed ballot, Ludwing said.
“What we believe to have occurred is the individual did make a selection on the machine and that selection was printed on their ballot,” Ludwig said. “When they went to cast their ballot, they checked it and realized that was not the vote that they wanted.
This is not uncommon, and there’s a practice in place called spoiling the ballot to handle this. The individual notified the lead clerk that they needed to spoil their ballot, and he was issued a new ballot and able to vote.”
A video of a man describing a difference between his electronic selection for president and the candidate selected on his printed ballot has been making the rounds on social media. It was shared by Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French on Monday, Oct. 21.
In it, the man says, “I voted for one president. Checked it on the video screen. When I got the paper ballot, it had the other candidate’s name on it.”
French in a separate post says the incident in the video occurred in White Settlement.
Republican voter John Owen, 21, said he came to the White Settlement Library to vote early because of the video, which he saw on TikTok.
“I wanted to find out for myself how true that TikTok video was,” he said.
Owen said he had no issues casting his vote. He asked Budnschu some “very strong questions,” he said, and came away believing that she was running a secure election at the site.
“TikTok can push it over the limit a little bit, you know, just exaggerate a story to tell and sell,” he said, adding that the social media site “has been proven multiple times to be liars.”
Jess Glover, 38, was outside the library on Tuesday, Oct. 22, telling arriving voters to check their ballots before scanning them. She claimed to have taken the videos that went viral the day before and shared them with the Star-Telegram.
Sitting in a truck bed next to signs for the Trump/Vance ticket and sporting a cap alluding to Q-Anon, Glover said she came back to warn people about checking their ballots to help ensure election integrity.
“All I care about is election fairness,” she said. “I don’t care who wins, if it’s fair. I believe in election integrity.”
Glover referred to the election conspiracy theory film “2,000 Mules” as one of the sources of her skepticism of the electoral process. The film’s publisher issued an apology and said it would stop distributing it in May for its false depictions of the 2020 election.
“It makes me suspicious, and I’m a curious person,” she said. “I care about this country, and I care about things being fair.”
The county has also identified a “labeling error” in which the election for “Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals” is labeled as “Railroad Commissioner” on the printed, paper ballot. The candidates are correctly displayed on both the screen and printed ballots, according to the county.
The labeling error will not effect the results of either race, the county said.
The labeling issue and the instance of the paper ballot not reflecting the voter’s presidential choice have been reported to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, according to the county. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office confirmed the office has been in touch with Tarrant County.
The county reported that 58,488 ballots were cast on Monday, a 38% increase from the first day of early voting in 2020.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 12:53 PM.
