| Date |
Problem Type |
State
|
Vendor
|
Description
|
| 11/4/2009 |
E-pollbook |
TX |
|
The statewide voter registration database crashed when the polls opened.
Story
Archive.
Related Story and
Archive |
| 11/4/2009 |
E-pollbook |
TX |
|
Galveston County. Internet firewalls blocked computer access to the county’s central voting system. While the county conducted connectivity tests at each of the polling places before the election, the testing was done one place at a time. When all of the polling places signed on at about the same time, the problems showed up.
Story
Archive |
| 11/4/2009 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart Intercivic |
Galveston County. The election management system reported that all votes had been counted, when less than half had been counted. Officials thought this was because the system was based on 121 precincts, rather than the 40 super-precincts (voting centers) used in the election.
Story
Archive.
|
| 10/24/2009 |
Wrong ballot |
TX |
|
Victoria County. A county error in preparing the voting machines cause Proposition 5 to be a duplication of Proposition 4 on the ballot display.
Story |
| 11/6/2008 |
E-pollbook |
TX |
|
Williamson County. A software defect caused as many as 590 Williamson County voters to get the wrong ballot Tuesday. On Wednesday, officials pinpointed a problem in the transfer of voter information from the county's early-voting program to the Election-Day program.
Story
Archive |
| 11/4/2008 |
Check-in problems |
TX |
|
Reported to VotersUnite: My husband was turned away from the polling station because the person at the check-in desk claimed our address did not exist. Our home is about 4 blocks from this polling station. We later called 335-vote and confirmed he was at the right location for precinct 4164 and that the our address is listed properly and in the correct precinct. |
| 11/4/2008 |
Poor design |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Reported to VotersUnite: Even though I know better than to vote a straight-party option, I selected straight-party Democratic on the eSlate electronic voting machine in Precinct 60. All the Democratic candidates were selected. Then I deselected the straight-party option, but all the Democratic candidates remained selected.
I then attempted to remove the Democratic selections by hitting the LIBERTARIAN PARTY straight ticket selection. That worked. Now I was voting only for Libertarians. I could find NO WAY to NOT vote for one of the straight ticket choices (Dem, Rep, Libertarian) once I had first selected any straight ticket. Even if all three straight ticket options were unchecked.
I asked the pollworker to give me a clean slate, and erase everything. He looked around (I know he has worked elections before), shrugged and said, no, I would have to go through and just uncheck all the selections. |
| 10/31/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
|
Jefferson County. District 22 State Representative Joe Deshotel told KBMT 12 news he voted for each candidate individually (on the iVotronic touch screen machine) and noticed that after he made his selection his vote for Barack Obama had changed to John McCain.
Story
Archive |
| 10/30/2008 |
Wrong ballot |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Galveston County. More than 100 voters in Santa Fe may have been given the code for the wrong ballot during the first two days of early voting. The mistake could call into question the validity of the outcome of the local school district’s $65 million bond proposals.
Story
Archive |
| 10/29/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Diebold |
Collin County. Vote-flipping on the touch screen voting machine. Straight-party Democratic vote switched to Republican.
Story
Archive |
| 10/29/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Galveston County. Vote-flipping on the eSlate electronic voting machine. Straight-party Democratic vote switched to Republican presidential candidate.
Story
Archive |
| 10/29/2008 |
Malfeasance |
TX |
|
Collin County. At one polling station, election workers improperly demanded photo IDs from every voter. At another station, voters whose names were not listed in the state's new electronic voter database – even some with registration cards – were turned away and told to come back later.
Story
Archive |
| 10/28/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Jefferson County. Vote-flipping from Obama to McCain on the iVotronic touch screen machine.
Story
Archive
Story2
Archive2 |
| 10/27/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Diebold |
El Paso County. Vote-flipping on the Diebold touch screen machine. Straight-party Democratic vote switched to all Republicans on the review screen.
Story
Archive
Story2
Archive2 |
| 10/26/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Brazoria County. Vote-flipping on the eSlate electronic voting machines. Straight-party vote flipped the vote for president. In other cases, a straight-party vote didn't select the president.
Story
Archive
One voter selected straight-party Democratic, then selected Obama for President separately, and McCain was selected instead.
Story2
Archive2 |
| 10/21/2008 |
Deceptive practices |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Travis County (Austin). A "poll cat" gave misinformation to voters, telling them that if they vote a straight-party ticket, they must also then select their Presidential candidate. Actually, doing this will deselect the Presidential candidate.
Story
Archive |
| 10/21/2008 |
Deceptive practices |
TX |
ESS |
Williamson County. Elections Administrator Rick Barron has circulated an email giving false information about straight-party voting. "A voter can vote straight party and have all of their votes count," the e-mail states. "They can also vote straight party and then select every Democrat again, if they so chose." The truth is that 'selecting' every Democrat again will deselect those candidates.
Story
Archive |
| 10/21/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Dallas. A new type of vote-flipping in the straight-party function on the iVotronic touch screen machine. A voter voted straight-party, then attempted to deselect two of the judges in that party. When he deselected one candidate, the machine erroneously marked the opposing candidate.
Story
Archive |
| 10/21/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Palo Pinto County. Vote-flipping on the iVotronic touch screen machine. A voter reported to VotersUnite that her straight Democratic ticket to a straight Republican ticket TWICE "right before my eyes!" The articles tell more and mention other voters with the same complaint.
Story
Archive
Story2
Archive2 |
| 10/21/2008 |
Registration errors |
TX |
|
Midland County. A woman who has lived at the same address since 1992 and claims to have voted twice since 2000 was told that her registration was cancelled in 2000 and her vote won't count. Her husband and mother were cancelled, too. "We show that she was canceled in the year 2000. We have no record of her ever having registered in Midland", said Midland Elections Administrator Ruth Sloan. [Editor - no record of her being registered, why is there a record of her cancellation.]
Story
Archive |
| 10/20/2008 |
E-pollbook |
TX |
|
Harris County (Houston). A malfunction in the machines that scan voters' identification at the Acres Homes Multi-Service Center caused long lines. About 300 people stood in line waiting to cast ballots before the problem was corrected 90 minutes later.
Story
Archive |
| 10/20/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Harris County (Houston). Vote-flipping on the eSlate. Some voters voted straight-ticket Democrat then discovered that the electronic voting machines indicated they had voted for John McCain in the presidential contest.
Story
Archive
Story2
Archive2 |
| 10/18/2008 |
Poor design |
TX |
|
Bexar County (San Antonio). Instructions with mail-in ballots say to use the marker provided, but no marker is provided, so voters aren't sure what marker to use to ensure that their votes are counted on the optical scanner.
Story
Archive |
| 7/10/2008 |
Poor design |
TX |
Hart Intercivic |
The Democratic party is charging that the eSlate electronic voting machines don’t count some votes when voters cast a straight-party ballot. A spokesman for the party said voters have selected the straight party option, and then selects the candidate again in an “emphasis vote,” which really deselects the candidate on the ballot. According to a release by the Texas Democratic Party, they believe the problem has changed the outcome of at least one Texas election.
Story
Archive
Story2 |
| 5/19/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Cass County. Flawed ballot programming from Hart InterCivic allowed voters who were not in District 1 to vote for the District 1 city council seat. Although only 41 residents of District 1 were signed in to vote, the number of combined votes received by the District 1 candidates was 198. The only way to remedy the situation is to have one of the candidates file suit to have the election overturned.
Story
Archive |
| 4/19/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Angelina County. Errors are still not resolved in the tabulation of ballots scanned by the M-100 optical scanner and cast on the iVotronic e-voting machine, and collected by the ES&S "expert" technician. County officials are petitioning a judge to allow a recount. County District Attorney Ed Jones didn't have the exact numbers Friday, but gave amounts of discrepancies he thought were "close." Electronic votes from Box 13, which was at the Chambers Park rock house, were under-counted by 305 votes; Precinct 6 was over-counted by 573 votes; Precinct 11 was over-counted by 275 votes; and Precinct 11B was over-counted by 204 votes, Jones said.
Story
Archive
Update 6/7/08. A recount of the ballots from five precincts found 959 fewer votes than originally reported. The error had been caused by the technician who uploaded the results from each memory cartridge twice. Outcomes were not changed by the change in totals.
Story
Archive
|
| 3/10/2008 |
Fraud |
TX |
|
Travis County. The caucus precinct chair for the precincts that include the Univ. of Texas discovered that some of the Clinton preferences listed for caucus attendees had been written by someone else. Some students were told to leave the preference blank, and when told their names were listed by Clinton, they said that would not have been their choice.
Story
Archive |
| 3/6/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Travis County. Only one of about nine eSlate polling machines was working properly. A technician discovered that the machine responsible for printing out access codes for voters was broken. Voting resumed about 10 a.m. after the machine was shut down and replaced with a new one.
Story
Archive |
| 3/5/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Angelina County. Central tabulators couldn't read the vote-data cards from the M100 optical scanners. The precinct numbers labeled on the cards did not match the information inside the card, and the machines would not accept them. Acting Tax Assessor Thelma "Midget" Sherman conceded that there was a programming error down the line that could have been caught earlier.
Story
Archive
Story2
Archive2 |
| 3/4/2008 |
Fraud |
TX |
|
Harris County. (Houston). Some senior citizens were turned away from the polls because absentee ballots had already been turned in for them. Citizens reported that people were going door-to-door, offering help to seniors with filing voter registration forms.Some victims signed the paperwork, while others did not, but the scammers then used the information to mail absentee ballots in their names, meaning their votes were stolen from them.
Story
Archive |
| 3/4/2008 |
Too few ballots |
TX |
|
Williamson County. So many Democrats have voted in Republican stronghold Williamson County that ballots are already running low in some precincts. Democratic election workers in some Williamson County precincts have called the county elections office today to say they’re already halfway through their ballots, and the afternoon and early evening heavy traffic has yet to happen.
Story
Archive |
| 2/27/2008 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Travis County (Austin). eSlates were not "connected to the system" and had to be rebooted after one voter noticed an error message telling her "Reconnect to system to record vote."
Story
Archive |
| 11/14/2007 |
Wrong ballot |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Harris County (Houston). Incomplete ballots appeared on the eSlate electronic voting machines in three early voting precincts, thus denying voters their votes on a tax proposal. Though election day voters were given the correct ballots, the article says "it was too late to have those votes recorded on the main computer." So, the county technician hacked into the computer and changed the totals to include the votes from election day.
John R. Behrman, a computer expert and longtime election observer representing the Democratic Party, astutely pointed out, "Basically it turns out, without regard to any ballots that have been cast, you can enter arbitrary numbers in there and report them out in such a way that, unless you go back to these giant (computer) logs and interpret the logs, you wouldn't know it has been done."
Story
Archive |
| 11/12/2007 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Wharton County. The voting machine, not voter error, not a calibration problem, switched votes.
When Jim Welch voted last Tuesday, he watched as the voting machine changed the vote he'd entered a few moments earlier. "What Welch witnessed was votes that registered CORRECTLY when he touched the screen, switching later to a different vote choice, when he was almost finished voting the full page.
"Welch was stunned to see a correctly marked vote take on a life of its own, hopping over to a different spot while he voted on other items. He called an elections worker over to show him the problem. The elections worker helped him re-vote the ballot, and both men watched as the vote registered correctly, but later spontaneously altered to shift to another ballot choice."
Story
|
| 5/17/2007 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Diebold |
Wise County. Two out of three Diebold touch screen machines malfunction. One of them lost 38 votes, which even Diebold cannot retrieve. Aurora city may have to hold a new election.
Story
Archive |
| 5/15/2007 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
Hart InterCivic |
Denton County. "The county's voting machines were programmed to print the totals by precinct because of the amendment, but it didn't give totals for Flower Mound's two council races, two alcohol propositions and 10 charter amendments."
Story
Archive |
| 1/8/2007 |
Canvass anomalies |
TX |
ESS |
Hill County. Two citizens who monitored recounts claim to have observed a pattern that indicates that every 10th vote on the iVotronic voting machines flipped votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.
Story
Archive |
| 11/19/2006 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Smith County. The county's central tabulating computer failed on election night. An ES&S technician removed the hard drive and installed it in another computer, which was used to tally the votes. Paula Patterson, Smith County elections administrator, said, "Computers and other equipment can fail occasionally."
Story |
| 11/16/2006 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Williamson County. iVotronic touch screen machines count every vote three times.
Story
Archive |
| 11/15/2006 |
Machine malfunction |
TX |
ESS |
Williamson County. Williamson County spokeswoman Connie Watson said that computer software counted each electronic vote three times, making the initial reported vote total about 6,500 more than the actual total. Most of the votes in the county were cast on paper ballots.
Story
Archive
|
