Tarrant County’s voting machines ‘cannot and do not’ change ballots, company says
Tarrant County’s voting machines are incapable of changing voters’ ballots, according to the manufacturer.
“Tarrant County’s voting devices are among the most secure in the nation and do not ‘flip votes,’” said a spokesperson for Hart InterCivic in an emailed statement. “The devices are tested and certified at the state and federal level and were successfully tested locally in Tarrant County prior to the start of Early Voting.”
The company is aware of reports of a Tarrant County man who said a voting machine changed his choice for president at the White Settlement Library on Monday, Oct. 21, and it is taking the allegation seriously, the spokesperson said.
“Hart voting machines cannot and do not ‘flip’ votes,” the statement read.
Tarrant County man sticking to his story
After video of Tony Carpenter talking about his experience went viral, Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said in a statement posted to X that the machine was working correctly.
“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 on Tuesday, Oct. 22. “When they went to cast their ballot, they checked it and realized that was not the vote that they wanted.”
But Carpenter isn’t buying it.
“He’s full of [expletive],” he said in an interview on Wednesday, Oct. 23. “I’ll tell him that to his face. He needs to call me. No, he needs to come see me.”
Ludwig did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carpenter checked his full ballot twice and his choice for president three times, he said. His vote might have gone to Vice President Kamala Harris had he been as carefree as others he said he saw voting.
“I’m in line, and I’m watching probably 30 people or more, and they’re going to these different voting booths, and not a single one of them is checking the ballot,” he said. “They take it and they go, put it through the scanner and walk off. They never checked, verified that the printout was correct.”
He suggested the possibility that voters who were not as vigilant as he was could have cast ballots for someone other than their preferred candidate, and expressed suspicion about the voting machine still being in use.
“They’re continuing to let people vote on that machine,” he said. “They never checked it.”
The Star-Telegram asked county elections officials if the machine had been tested after Carpenter’s experience, but did not receive a response.
Ludwig and other county elections officials invited members of the public to attempt to “hack” or misuse randomly selected voting machines in any way they could think of during a public test in September. No issues like the one Carpenter described came up, and the scanner rejected a ballot that had already been scanned.
Trump campaign said to be getting involved
Carpenter has been in contact with a member of the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. They said they are going to connect him with an attorney, he said, but was unsure of what exactly it would entail.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French has been coordinating the collaboration with the Trump campaign, Carpenter said.
French did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carpenter had not heard back from the Trump campaign as of midday Wednesday, Oct. 23.
It is not uncommon for people to make mistakes when entering in their preferred candidates on the voting machines, Ludwig said in his post on X. When this happens, the ballot is spoiled, or voided, and the voter is given a new one.
Carpenter said his incorrect ballot was not properly spoiled. The election worker helping him tore the barcode off of the ballot and destroyed the part with the printed text, he said.
“The barcode is what registers the vote, not the text,” he said. “She did tear up the text, but she put the barcode in her pocket.”
Ballots in Tarrant County feature QR codes, not barcodes, and the QR code does not contain any information about a voter’s choices of candidates, according to David Lambertsen, the Republican presiding judge of the county ballot board.
The QR code contains identifying information about the ballot and the machine used to print it, he said.
The ballot spoiling process involves tearing this code off of the ballot, thus rendering it incapable of being scanned, according to Katherine Cano, the board’s Democratic alternate judge. Then the printed text part of the ballot is supposed to be put into an envelope, which is put into a sealed bag with other spoiled ballots. These bags are sent to the elections administration at the end of the day and saved as part of the record in case of an audit.
The best practice for this process is to have the voter tear off the QR code, Cano said, but this was only updated for this election, and some election workers may not be up to date on it.
However, no matter who tore off the QR code, without it Carpenter’s spoiled ballot is not able to be scanned, according to both Lambertsen and Cano.
“And if it’s not scanned, it’s not counted,” Cano said.
Carpenter said this knowledge somewhat alleviated his concern about his spoiled ballot, but he still questioned why the text part was not put in an envelope.
“That’s certainly good to know,” he said. “Some people disagree with that, but I don’t know. Several people are telling me several different things.”
Social media exaggerated story of vote being changed
Although the person who filmed and shared the video of Carpenter talking about his experience also shared another video of a man making a similar statement, Carpenter is the only Tarrant County voter so far to say he believes a machine changed his vote.
The other video shows a man saying he heard two other people saying their votes were changed.
This fact, however, did not stop social media users from sharing exaggerated accounts of what happened at the White Settlement Library on Monday.
“Dozens of Reports Coming out of Tarrant County that Early Voters who Selected Trump for President, were shocked to learn their Printed Receipt Showed they Voted for Kamala Harris,” said a post by an account on X named @MJTruthUltra.
The post, which includes the video of Carpenter, said there was “NOT one known instance the other way around.” All of the reports were of people who intended to vote for Trump, it said.
While Carpenter did indeed intend to vote for Trump — and ultimately succeeded — he did not say so in the video.
The post had over 237,000 views, 7,000 likes and 5,000 reposts as of the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 23.
The account’s owner did not respond to a direct message sent via the app.
“I don’t know about them,” Carpenter said. “I can only swear to my own experience.”
Full statement from Hart InterCivic
“REALITY: Tarrant County’s voting devices are among the most secure in the nation and do not “flip votes.” The devices are tested and certified at the state and federal level and were successfully tested locally in Tarrant County prior to the start of Early Voting.
“RUMOR: Voting devices in Tarrant County are “flipping votes” from one political party to the other.
“Hart InterCivic is aware of an isolated claim concerning vote-flipping in Tarrant County, Texas. Hart takes any allegations that our devices are not operating properly extremely seriously. We are already in contact with County officials and will provide any support necessary to ascertain the origin of this reported issue.
“Hart voting machines cannot and do not ‘flip’ votes. Further, voters are given multiple opportunities to verify their vote selections throughout their voting experience. In fact, Tarrant County’s voting system allows voters three separate opportunities to confirm their selections before casting their vote: first, when making their selection within a contest on the device screen; second, when reviewing a summary of all their selections on the review screen prior to printing their paper ballot; and third, when reviewing their choices on their paper ballot before scanning. If the voter notices they made a mistake — or simply changes their mind — at any one of these three review opportunities, they can change their selection before their vote is cast.
“The functionality, accuracy, and security of our systems are thoroughly and independently tested before being certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Elections Division of the Texas Secretary of State. In addition, every Texas county election office conducts thorough Logic and Accuracy Testing before and after every election to confirm the accuracy of the voting systems. Texas county election officials also run Hash Validations to independently confirm that all elements of the voting system software in use in the county are the exact same, with no modifications, as the software certified at the state and federal levels. Finally, Hart’s paper-based voting systems allow for thorough post-election audits and recounts.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 3:42 PM.
