‘Voter error’ flipped GOP ballot to Democrat in Texas | McClatchy Washington Bureau

A voter complaint about trying to cast a straight-party Republican vote — and noticing that the presidential vote flipped to Democrat — was resolved in Tarrant County before the ballot was cast, election officials say.

The incident became the talk of social media after a description of the problem was posted on Facebook.

This was one of two such complaints on the first day of early voting in Tarrant County, said Frank Phillips, the county’s elections administrator.

A record 43,000 voters turned out to cast ballots on the first day of early voting in Tarrant County, weighing in on the presidential election, the Arlington stadium proposition and a slew of other races.

Tarrant County elections officials stress that the equipment used for local voters is secure and operating properly.

In this type of situation, there’s a standard procedure that calls for contacting the election judge to see what he or she can say about the problem, sending a technician to check the equipment and trying to replicate the problem at election headquarters.

Phillips said the election judge voided the woman’s ballot at the Arlington polling place and moved her to a different machine where she was able to cast the vote she wanted.

The equipment was checked, no problems were found and election officials were unable to replicate the error at headquarters.

Phillips has said his office has received a number of calls this week alleging that some equipment changed straight-party votes, but most of them came from people who heard about such an incident happening to someone else.

“Our investigations have indicated that the voter did not follow the directions for straight-party voting when they inadvertently click the ‘enter’ button or turn the wheel, causing the change in votes,” Phillips said in a statement Tuesday. “Further, in each incident where we could actually speak to a voter, they tell us that they discovered the changed vote on the summary screen display.

“This shows that the machine is working exactly as it should,” he said. “The voter gets to review a summary of vote choices made and make any changes as needed before actually casting the vote.”

As for the second case, election officials heard about it through word of mouth. They checked with the election judge who didn’t have any details. They don’t know if the second problem was resolved.

Signs posted in polling sites note that when a person casts a straight-party vote, it automatically gives a vote to all candidates associated with that party. But if a voter tries to “highlight the name of a candidate that has already received a straight-party vote, pressing ENTER again will remove the vote from that candidate and the box to the left of that candidate’s name will be cleared, indicating no vote has been entered for that candidate.”

Voters who choose a candidate “associated with a party other than the straight-party selection, your vote for that candidate will be counted in that particular process.”

Election officials urge voters to carefully review the summary screen. If there are any concerns, they say voters should not press the “cast ballot” button and instead call an election official over to help. Once a ballot has been cast, officials can’t retrieve or reissue a ballot.

Early voting runs through Nov. 4.

Another post gaining momentum on Facebook is a joke telling voters to remember their “assigned voting dates — Nov. 8 for Republicans and Nov. 9 for Democrats.”

In case you didn’t know, Election Day for all voters is Nov. 8.