Harris County TX District Attorney Kim Ogg showed up to vote in today’s Super Tuesday primary, in which she is a candidate, only to be told that she had already cast a ballot. According to the Houston Chronicle, Ogg’s partner allegedly cast a ballot in her name during early voting:
Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth issued a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointing out that voters are asked to review and confirm the information on the iPad screen when they are being qualified.
“In this instance, the DA’s partner must not have noticed that the information was not hers, and proceeded to sign in and vote under DA Ogg’s name,” Hudspeth said in a statement. “Clerical errors can occur at the polls. It is the voter’s responsibility to verify that their information in the iPad screen is correct.”
Hudspeth said Ogg’s partner signed her own name as confirmation. The clerk’s office was able to rectify the error and said Ogg has been able to vote since 8:24 a.m. The poll book was corrected so that Ogg could cast a ballot.
The explanation that they have the same address and that the partner failed to validate the name implies catastrophic failures of the poll-worker checking her partner in, as well as her partner for not catching it on the verification. But most importantly, the E-pollbook itself.
Especially considering the ContentActive E-pollbooks Harris County uses scan your drivers license when a voter checks in. From their website:
The Electronic Pollbook Voter Registration and Check-In system provides a convenient and secure voter check-in solution using barcode scanning technology used to scan drivers license for the voters of Harris County, Texas
Further, the statement that “the vote that DA Ogg’s partner cast has been transferred to her own name” would raise some serious questions about the capabilities of the machines and who has that type of access. If an election judge (poll-worker) or poll-manager was able to simply transfer the assignment of a vote, this would imply that the vote was assigned to someone’s name or a designating feature.
But Harris County retracted that statement and issued a correction, which is even more concerning:
“Clarification: the poll book has been corrected to make it possible for DA Ogg to vote. It is NOT a transfer of a vote.”
Clarification: the poll book has been corrected to make it possible for DA Ogg to vote. It is NOT a transfer of a vote. https://t.co/amI4Y9F3mJ
— Harris County Elections Department (@HarrisVotes) March 5, 2024
According to Chris Daniel on X, a former Harris County District Clerk, “I can tell you the existing system requires a 3-step verification. Very difficult to create this error accidentally.”
This is a serious clerical error. Having previously run a poll & been on the ballot since 2010 every 4 years minimum, I can tell you the existing system requires, a 3 step verification. Very difficult to create this error accidentally. Fortunately, they can fix this at central.
— Chris Daniel (@texasdaniel) March 5, 2024