Tarrant County voting is going well so far. Don’t muck it up with conspiracy theories | Opinion

Anticipation and, yes, anxiety are building as Election Day nears.

Heightened interest means more scrutiny and yet, early voting is extraordinarily smooth so far in Texas and Tarrant County.

Let’s not spoil it. If you encounter a problem or see an error, take a deep breath. Report the issue to an on-site election clerk or the Tarrant County Elections Department. Don’t turn to social media to suggest possible misdeeds. Too many mischief makers want to take advantage of common, innocent errors to create headaches, hassles and doubt about the voting process.

Remember one of the iron laws of life: that which can be explained by incompetence or simple human mistake, rather than malfeasance, probably should be.

Tarrant County had one highly publicized incident on Oct. 21, the first day of early voting. A voter reported that his ballot for Donald Trump was switched to Kamala Harris. There were also issues with a state office being mislabeled, which was fixed.

County election officials moved swiftly to explain in detail the problems and how they were handled. They deserve credit for a transparent response to a problem that, a decade ago, probably wouldn’t have made news. In this era of heightened paranoia about voter fraud and suppression, though, it’s best to take issues head on.

The idea that a voting machine can change one’s vote, especially for president, is a holdover from old machines used in past elections. Today, it casts incorrect doubt cast upon the process. Think how many misplaced clicks you lodge on your smartphone every day. It’s easy enough to miss with the voting machine stylus and not even realize you did it.

So far, early voting is going remarkably well here. There are lines, but they seem to be moving efficiently. Tarrant County recorded more than 241,000 early votes through four days, more than any other county except Harris, which has more than twice as many registered voters. It’s a sign that Republicans have embraced early voting again after heeding Trump’s doubts, which were always aimed more at mail voting anyway.

So many votes, relatively so few problems. And yet in any process this complicated, there will be errors. Even if a voter is sure or he she didn’t cause a problem, it’s almost certainly a mistake, not a nefarious scheme.

Monday’s incident reinforces an important step in the process: rigorously checking the printout of your ballot. If there’s a problem, take it to an election worker, not to TikTok. The worker will spoil your ballot, and you can cast the votes you meant to cast.

These underpaid, harassed workers are there to help you, and thank goodness for them. Get the help you need without making their jobs harder.

After all, they could still be in for a maelstrom. There’s a week left to vote early, and crowds will pick up again toward Nov. 1, the last day for early balloting.

Remember that you can use any county polling location. The Elections Department’s website will tell you roughly how long the wait is, if you’d rather drive a little farther to shorten your time in line.

Come Election Day, there will be locations that don’t open on time, voting machines that don’t work, broken printers and any number of issues. If you see something wrong, raise a red flag. But don’t undermine our elections by spreading tales of conspiracy where none is to be found.