After a day of glitches and breakdowns, Harris County election officials told state officials that damaged ballots would delay the final reporting of election results.
Texas Secretary of State John Scott's office released a statement saying the county had requested an extension to the state's 24-hour reporting deadline just after the polls closed at 7 p.m.
Harris County election officials downplayed the announcement, saying they held a phone call with Scott's office "to discuss the 30-year provision requiring polling place voter records to be turned over within 24 hours of closing." of the polls."
Officials said they had released the early voting results shortly after polls closed, saying in a statement: โElection day results will be reported and the rest of the reconciliation process will continue over the next several days as we prioritize accuracy over speed. โ
They said, however, that โafter discussing the possible criminal penalties and new civil penalties associated with delayed reporting and the outdated nature of said law, and on the recommendation of the Office of the Secretary of State, the political parties decided seek a court order regarding the time associated with counting the ballots.โ
Failure to meet the 24-hour reporting deadline is a Class B misdemeanor.
Scott said his office "stands ready to assist Harris County election officials and all county election officials throughout the state in meeting the requirements of the Texas Election Code to accurately tabulate and report election results." primariesโ.
The Harris County elections office introduced its new voting machine, the Hart InterCivic Verity Duo, last year in what it said was an effort to make voting faster, easier and more secure, but many voters found the system cumbersome. The touch screen interface produces two paper ballots that voters then feed into a scanner. It was not immediately clear how many ballot papers may have been damaged, or at what point in the process the damage occurred.
Harris County administrators' troubles began even before Election Day voting began.
The county's election website map, which provides an option where people can type in their address and find nearby polling places, went down around 6:30 a.m. The map was blank for about 90 minutes, authorities said. A PDF list of polling sites and the phone number to call with questions remained active, Harris County Elections spokeswoman Nadia Hakim said.
Though isolated, the problems, from inoperable equipment that closed polling places to understaffing, rankled some voters and officials and worried others.
โWe have had multiple complaints throughout the county of voting machines not being delivered, missing equipment and machines still not working,โ Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel said in a statement. "Our goal has always been to ensure that our voters have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and that every vote is properly recorded and counted."
Siegel called the problems "a complete failure on behalf of (County Judge) Lina Hidalgo's unelected and irresponsible elections administrator."
Odus Evbagharu, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, said everyone, poll workers and election officials, were working on the "issues" and was optimistic the issues would not be a serious drag on the election.
โYou are working through new laws and new machines,โ said Evbagharu. "This is not a partisan issue, everyone is trying to work out those issues so that we have a successful election and everyone gets a vote."
County election officials were working through many of the issues, preparing for some problems at the polls, opening a helpline and stockpiling additional equipment, Hakim said. Any judges with equipment problems were encouraged to call the helpline for technical assistance.
"We learned our lesson in November and had twice as many people answering the line," Hakim said, describing it as an "all hands on deck" situation.
โWe are sending people as fast as we can,โ he said.
At the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center in the Fourth Ward area, machine problems made it impossible for voters to cast ballots for some time in the morning.
Galen Lytle said he was unable to vote in the Democratic primary there due to a connectivity issue with the machines. Poll workers gave him the names of other nearby polling places, prompting Lytle to hop on his bike and head to Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Yupon.
"I'm going to try again," he said.
Precinct Judge Jesse Goins said broken machines and staffing shortages plagued the Democratic primary at the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in West Gray throughout the day. A technology support person from Harris County Elections helped fix the problems and brought in new equipment, though the new machines also had problems, he said.
Rudy Norman, a Republican poll worker, said the machines for Republican voters, located in a different room in the same location, had few problems on Election Day.
Each political party is operating its own primary, sharing seats, because Republicans did not agree to a joint primary, which was preferred by county election officials and Democrats. As a result, Hakim said, the parties are responsible for providing election officials for each of the 375 locations. As of Monday night, Hakim said Republicans were 20 justices short of full staff and Democrats 12 short.
Poll workers received four hours of training, Hakim said, which provides a lot of information quickly.
"You're not going to remember everything," he said, noting that election officials instruct those at the polls to ask for help when needed.
In some places, he said, election officials were cooperative, sharing equipment and technical advice and working seamlessly to resolve issues.
"In other places, we've seen the exact opposite of the spectrum," Hakim said, though he said officials are still evaluating those allegations.
Republican officials were also looking closely at many of the concerns, said Genevieve Carter, a spokeswoman for the county party. She said concern was growing that despite the high interest in Election Day voting in Harris County, closed polling sites would reduce turnout.
Evbagharu said he doubted isolated problems or a closed polling place would significantly affect turnout in many places. Anyone can vote anywhere in the county, a change from pre-2020 elections, and those running for primaries in a non-presidential year are often die-hard voters, she said.
โThey are going to find a polling place,โ Evbagharu said.
Chronicle photographer Mark Mulligan contributed to this story.
dug.begley@chron.com
anna.bauman@chron.com
