Tarrant County man says his vote wasn't what he expected; urges others to check ballots
FORT WORTH — On day two of early voting, Tarrant County is encouraging voters to make sure to confirm their ballot selections.
This comes after two issues were reported. One White Settlement voter thinks this needs to be investigated further.
On the second day of early voting, voters at a polling place in White Settlement shared their experiences.
"I didn't hear any issues at all," voter Bryce Danley said.
"The staff is friendly, and they gave us advice coming in," voter Nora Washington said.
James Carpenter said he voted yesterday.
"I voted for one president, checked it on the video screen, when I got the paper ballot, it has the other candidates name on it," Carpenter said in a now viral video shared online.
Carpenter said the candidate listed was Vice President Kamala Harris.
"I was not happy," he said. "I went to talk to the lady who is controlling the polling place and she said all I can do is give you another ballot."
He said he tried to alert other voters around him.
"That particular polling machine should've been shut down and examined right then, but they continued to let people use it," he said. "I don't know how many votes went through that were not correct and I think that's sad. I think that's really sad."
On X, Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said of the more than 100,000 people who have cast a ballot in early voting, one found their printed ballot did not correctly reflect their choice for president. They do not believe votes are being switched by the voting system.
"This is not uncommon and there's a practice in place called pooling the ballot to handle this," Ludwig said. "The individual notified the lead clerk that they needed to spoil their ballot and he was issued a new ballot and able to vote."
Additionally, a labeling error for the office of "Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals" on the paper printed ballot was detected. It was labeled "Railroad Commissioner." Election officials say it will not affect the results of the poll race. The issues have been reported to the Texas Secretary of State's Office.
Election officials are now encouraging voters to confirm their selections on the physical paper ballot before placing it into the scanner to be counted.
"I didn't make a mistake," Carpenter said. "I didn't press the wrong candidate and I don't know how to respond to that really."
Carpenter said he's considering consulting with an attorney tomorrow. He wants to take additional action.
In Dallas County, election officials also experienced an issue yesterday.
They said when voters checked in, some electronic poll books displayed a black screen or repeated error message. In some cases, poll books printed the wrong ballot.
However, they say the issue has been resolved and operations are now running smoothly.