Early voting for the midterm elections began in Texas on Monday, and there have been numerous reports of voting machines changing straight-party selections on people’s ballots.
When this has happened, the machines have reportedly included candidates from the opposite party of a person’s selection, or not selected a candidate at all. For example, somebody who selected the option to vote straight-ticket for Democrats, might’ve wound up voting for Ted Cruz.
The problem isn’t limited to one party, though. According to The Hill, Democrats have found their votes for Beto O’Rourke going to Cruz, while Republicans actually attempting to vote for Cruz saw the machines dropping their votes and selecting no candidate at all.
I chose the “straight ticket” option for the Democratic Party on the first screen.
Once I toggled through the 16+ page ballot and reached the final screen to review my choices, I saw that my vote for @BetoORourke had been changed to a vote for Ted Cruz.
Photo below.
2/x#TXSen pic.twitter.com/x0cdHSpFts
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) October 26, 2018
The scope of the problem is currently unknown, although AJ+ tweeted on Friday that Texas election officials confirmed voting machines in 30 percent of the state’s counties have supposedly been switching votes.
Texas election officials confirmed that voting machines used in 30% of its counties (including its biggest) are switching people’s votes, including the Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke. The GOP-appointed officials say they have “no legal authority” to update them. pic.twitter.com/UGui2ox15H
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 26, 2018
A spokesman for the Texas secretary of state told ABC 13 that the problem is caused by “user error,” though it could possibly be fixed if the state would upgrade its systems. However, the secretary of state seems to share the general sentiment that Texas won’t act.
“Texas just hasn’t spent the resources necessary to modernize its elections,” Zenen Perez, communications director at the Texas Civil Rights Project told GQ. “Until they do, we’re going to continue to see this kind of thing on a regular basis.”
Meanwhile, Texas voters are being urged to double-check their votes before submitting.